Several generations of ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators have been developed since 1992. It has been discovered that the composite electrodes which are composed of electronic and ionic conductors, have great impact on performance of ionic polymer actuators by affecting strain level, efficiency and speed. One of important factors in composite electrodes is the shape and morphology o...

Piezohydraulic actuation is the use of hydraulic fluid to rectify the high frequency, small stroke oscillation movement of the piezoceramic stack into a unidirectional movement. This paper presents a quasi-steady incompressible flow model and a compressible flow model for performance simulation. These two models are derived based on the energy equations for hydraulic flow in circular pipe. Majo...

In this paper, a particular actuation singularity of a 3-RPS symmetrical rotational parallel mechanism (PM) is studied. When the movable platform of this PM is restricted to rotate about the vertical axis of the base, it is equivalent to a single loop mechanism (SLM). By analyzing the constraint properties of the SLM, the motion characteristics of this 3-RPS rotational PM under this motion are ...

The Future Internet will be an inherently cyber-physical system, providing native support for many forms of real world interaction, including sensing and actuation. This will place unique requirements on its architectural design, as a vastly heterogeneous set of stake holders tussling to promote business and social opportunities, while addressing technical and incentive barriers. This paper des...

The increase in aerial storage capacities of future magnetic hard disk drives has fostered the use of dual-stage actuators for high track density data recording. In a hard disk drive with a dual-stage actuator the standard rotary actuation of the voice coil motor is combined with an additional micro or milli actuation to accomplish high-bandwidth and highly accurate track following. In order to...

Networked robot systems are ensembles of robots that enhance their individual capabilities by sharing perception, computation and actuation capabilities with each other to solve problems that an individual robot could not solve alone. In this chapter, we focus on architectures and control of autonomous networked robot systems that communicate wirelessly. We will first provide an overview over c...

On the cover: Representation of the flow around a helicopter blade with a Gurney flap. Summary Today's helicopters are the result of collaborative work in mechanical engineering and aeronautics. The European project " Clean Sky " aims at improving the efficiency and the global transport quality of aircraft. In the field of rotorcraft, the research in this project is currently focussing on activ...

Integrated microvalves are needed for a broad range of semiconductor-processing-related applications. These include precision mass microflow controllers (laFCs) for dry etch systems, miniature gas chromatography systems for real-time monitoring, point-of-use semiconductor process reactant generators, and compact control systems for minienvironments. This paper reports a pneumatically actuated, ...

Research in evolutionary robotics has traditionally been limited to morphologies comprising rigid and discrete components, such as links connected with rotational or linear joints and actuators. Here, we demonstrate the evolution of robots with continuous and amorphous morphologies composed of multiple materials. Actuation is accomplished by periodic volumetric expansion and contraction of one ...