Nematic elastomers and glasses are solids that display spontaneous distortion under external stimuli. Recent advances in the synthesis of sheets with controlled heterogeneities have enabled their actuation into nontrivial shapes with unprecedented energy density. Thus, these have emerged as powerful candidates for soft actuators. To further this potential, we introduce the key metric constraint...

Magnet filler-polymer matrix composites (Magpol) are an emerging class of morphing materials. Applications of Magpol can include artificial muscles, drug delivery, adaptive optics and self healing structures. Advantages of Magpol include remote contactless actuation, several actuation modes, high actuation strain and strain rate, self-sensing and quick response. The actuation modes of Magpol, i...

We analyze active constrained layer damping (ACLD) of functionally graded (FG) shells under a thermal environment using vertically and obliquely reinforced 1–3 piezocomposites (PZCs) and investigate the performance of PZCs as materials for the constraining layer of the ACLD treatment. The shell’s deformations are analyzed by using a modified first-order shear deformation theory and the finite e...

In this paper, effects of EHD actuators on hydrodynamic behavior and heat transfer of air flow over a circular cylinder were considered. Pressure and temperature distributions around the cylinder were measured in presence of wire-plate EHD actuators. The Reynolds number based on cylinder diameter (d) were 3500, 7000. Experiments were performed for various configurations. Based on obtained resul...

We have developed a new surface-micromachining process for realizing three-dimensional MEMS devices from hinged planar stmchlres. Magnetic actuation, which is provided by Permalloy material attached to hinged plates, provides efficient and highyield out-of-plane actuation. Parallel actuation of large arrays of hinged microstructures is achieved under a globally applied external magnetic field. ...

Interest in the field of human-centered robotics continues to grow, particularly in utilizing pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) for close human–robot collaborations. Addressing the limited control performance of PAMs, we proposed a hybrid actuation scheme that combines PAMs (macro) and a low-inertia DC motor (mini). While the scheme has shown significantly improved control performance and rob...

Digital microfluidic has recently been under intensive study, as an effective method to carry out liquid manipulation in Lab-On-a-Chip (LOC) systems. Among droplet actuation forces, ElectroWetting on Dielectric (EWOD) and Liquid DiElectroPhoresis (LDEP) are powerful tools, used in many LOC platforms. Such digital microfluidic transductions do not require integration of complex mechanical compon...