Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer actuators as smart robotic manipulators actuators as smart robotic manipulators
Conducting polymer actuators have shown significant potential in articulating micro instruments, manipulation devices, and robotics. However, implementing a feedback control strategy to enhance their positioning ability and accuracy in any application requires a feedback sensor, which is extremely large in size compared to the size of the actuators. Therefore, this paper proposes a new sensorless control scheme without the use of a position feedback sensor. With the help of the system identification technique and particle swarm optimization, the control scheme, which we call the simulated feedback control system, showed a satisfactory command tracking performance for the conducting polymer actuator's step and dynamic displacement responses, especially under a disturbance, without needing a physical feedback loop, but using a simulated feedback loop. The primary contribution of this study is to propose and experimentally evaluate the simulated feedback control scheme for a class of the conducting polymer actuators known as tri-layer polymer actuators, which can operate both in dry and wet media. This control approach can also be extended to other smart actuators or systems, for which the feedback control based on external sensing is impractical.
Electroactive Polymer actuators (EAPs), also known as EAP artificial muscles, offer a great potential for soft robotics. They are suitable for bio-inspired robotic applications due to their built-in actuation property within the mechanical body. In this paper, we report on a fully compliant micro-stage with built-in actuation. It has been fabricated as one piece inspired from twining structures in nature. We have employed a soft robotic modeling approach and finite element modeling to predict the mechanical output of the stage as a function of the input voltage. Experiments were conducted under a range of electrical inputs (0.25-1.00 V). For a given electrical stimulus, the compliant mechanism results in a linear motion in the middle of the active compliant mechanism, as expected. Experiments and simulation results are in good correlation. The active compliant mechanism can be used as a micro stage as well as an optical zoom mechanism for mobile phone cameras and similar devices.
There has been a growing interest in smart actuators typified by conducting polymer actuators, especially in their (i) fabrication, modeling and control with minimum external data and (ii) applications in bio-inspired devices, robotics and mechatronics. Their control is a challenging research problem due to the complex and nonlinear properties of these actuators, which cannot be predicted accurately. Based on an input-shaping technique, we propose a new method to improve the conducting polymer actuators' command-following ability, while minimizing their electric power consumption. We applied four input functions with smooth characteristics to a trilayer conducting polymer actuator to experimentally evaluate its command-following ability under an open-loop control strategy and a simulated feedback control strategy, and, more importantly, to quantify how the type of input function affects the dynamic response of this class of actuators. We have found that the four smooth inputs consume less electrical power than sharp inputs such as a step input with discontinuous higher-order derivatives. We also obtained an improved transient response performance from the smooth inputs, especially under the simulated feedback control strategy, which we have proposed previously [X Xiang, R Mutlu, G Alici, and W Li, 2014 "Control of conducting polymer actuators without physical feedback: simulated feedback control approach with particle swarm optimization', Journal of Smart Materials and Structure, 23]. The idea of using a smooth input command, which results in lower power consumption and better control performance, can be extended to other smart actuators. Consuming less electrical energy or power will have a direct effect on enhancing the operational life of these actuators. (ii) applications in bio-inspired devices, robotics and mechatronics. Their control is a challenging research problem due to the complex and nonlinear properties of these actuators which cannot be predicted accurately. Based on an input shaping technique, we propose a new method to improve the conducting polymer actuators' command following ability, while minimizing their electric power consumption. We applied four input functions with smooth characteristics to a tri-layer conducting polymer actuator to experimentally evaluate its command following ability under an open-loop control strategy and a simulated feedback control strategy, and more importantly to quantify how the type of the input functions affects the dynamic response of this class of actuators. We have found that the four smooth inputs consume less electrical power than sharp inputs such as a step input with discontinuous higher order derivatives. We also obtained an improved transient response performance from the smooth inputs, especially under the simulated feedback control strategy, which we have proposed previously [13]. The idea of using a smooth input command, which results in lower power consumption and better control performance, can be extended to other smart actuators. Consumi...
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