Micropumps have promising applications in biomedical devices andmicro total analysis systems. Conjugated polymer actuators provide an important potential mechanism for realizing micropumps because of their amenability to miniaturization and low actuation voltages. In this paper we present a novel, conjugated polymer petal-actuated diaphragm micropump, which is in contrast to the typical diaphra...

Redundant actuated parallel robot is a multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) system which usually works in an uncertain environment. In this paper, the force/position hybrid control structure of 6PUS-UPU redundant actuation parallel robot is designed, proportional-integral (PI) and model predictive control (MPC) cascade control strategy are used in the redundant branch of 6PUS-UPU redundant actua...

Icing and stalling on the surfaces of aircraft wings endanger flight safety. The object this research is a nanosecond pulsed dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuation unit with distributed layout, aerodynamic performance wing under icing conditions improved by changing electrical parameters. Actuated low voltage frequency, acts as sensor to judge according change in high discharge severe ge...

There is strong experimental evidence for the existence of strange modes of failure of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices under mechanical shock and impact. Such failures have not been explained with conventional models of MEMS. These failures are characterized by overlaps between moving microstructures and stationary electrodes, which cause electrical shorts. This work presents mode...

We examine a novel mechanism for active surface morphing inspired by the cell body deformations of euglenids. Actuation is accomplished through in-plane simple shear along prescribed slip lines decorating the surface. Under general non-uniform actuation, such local deformation produces Gaussian curvature, and therefore leads to shape changes. Geometrically, a deformation that realizes the presc...

Past research in the field of shape memory polymers has led to significant advancements in the areas of so-called one-way and two-way (reversible) shape memory. While one-way shape memory polymers allow indefinite fixing of a temporary shape until triggered thermally to recover to an equilibrium shape, twoway shape memory polymers feature muscle-like contraction on heating and expansion on cool...

This report discusses the guided Lamb wave sensing using polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber Bragg grating (PM-FBG) sensor. The goal is to apply the PM-FBG sensor system to composite structural health monitoring (SHM) applications in order to realize directivity and multi-axis strain sensing capabilities while reducing the number of sensors. Comprehensive experiments were conducted to evaluate ...

Recent advances in fabricating controlled-morphology vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) with ultrahigh volume fraction create unique opportunities for markedly improving the electromechanical performance of ionic polymer conductor network composite (IPCNC) actuators. Continuous paths through inter-VA-CNT channels allow fast ion transport, and high electrical conduction of the aligned ...

BACKGROUND Vascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel). Most vascular stents are metallic and are deployed either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. A shape memory polymer (SMP) stent may enhance flexibility, compliance, and drug elution compared to its current metallic counterparts. The purpose of this study was to de...

In this paper, the results of flow-control experiments using single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators to controlflow separation andunsteady vortex shedding froma circular cylinder in crossfloware reported. Thiswork is motivated by the need to reduce landing gear noise for commercial transport aircraft via an effective streamlining created by the actuators. The experiments are perfor...