Biomimetic Applications of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) Actuators - A Critical Review

Abstract

Biomimetic is the field of engineering in which biological creatures and their functions are investigated and are used as the basis for the design and manufacturing of machines. Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) is a smart material which has demonstrated a meaningful bending and tip force after the application of a low voltage. It is light-weighted, flexible, easily actuated, multi-directional applicable and requires simple manufacturing. Resultantly, IPMC has attracted scientists and researchers to analyze it further and consider it for any industrial and biomimetic applications. Presently, the research on IPMC is bi-directional oriented. A few groups of researchers are busy to find out the causes for the weaknesses of the material and to find out any remedy for them. The second class of scientists is exploring new areas of applications where IPMC material can be used. Although, the application zone of IPMC is ranging from micropumps diaphragms to surgical holding devices, this paper provides an overview of the IPMC application in biomimetic and biomedical field.

Soft Actuators for Small‐Scale Robotics

“…IPMCs are well suited as actuators because of their low driving voltages, high actuation strains, light weight, flexibility, high degrees of freedom, and nano‐ and microscale manufacturing feasibility . Typical work densities have been reported to be around 5.5 kJ m −3 .…”

A recurrent neural network–based model for predicting bending behavior of ionic polymer–metal composite actuators

“…The high predictive accuracy, despite the significant difference between the shape of the stimulus signals and the response to them, shows that RNN 5 has high flexibility and is well-trained. These results promise the use of the proposed structure in practical applications, for example, where IPMC is used as an actuator in robotic systems (Bar-Cohen et al, 2000;McDaid et al, 2010;Manley et al, 2009;Sadeghipour et al, 1992;Santos et al, 2010;Takagi et al, 2006) or medical implants (Fang et al, 2007;Farid et al, 2014;Feng and Chen, 2007;Shahinpoor and Kim, 2004). Indeed, precise identification promotes the IPMC's control and usage.…”

“…Ionic polymer–metal composites (IPMCs) are a type of electroactive polymers that can be employed as actuators and sensors for emerging robotic applications (Bar-Cohen et al, 2000; McDaid et al, 2010; Manley et al, 2009; Sadeghipour et al, 1992; Santos et al, 2010; Takagi et al, 2006) and biomedical applications (Fang et al, 2007; Farid et al, 2014; Feng and Chen, 2007; Shahinpoor and Kim, 2004) via their intrinsic coupling of electrical and mechanical domains (McDaid et al, 2012; Shahinpoor, 2003). Ionic polymers in a composite form with a conductive material such as metals or other conductive matters (Figure 1) can exhibit a large bending if appropriately stimulated with a low amplitude voltage (<5 V) (Adolf et al, 1993; Asaka et al, 1995; Ehsani et al, 2009; Oguro et al, 1993; Shahinpoor, 1998, 2015; Shahinpoor et al, 1998).…”

Theoretical Insights on Contraction-Type Iterative Learning Control for Biorobotic Systems with Preisach Hysteresis

“…The present work can contribute to the control design of smart materials [29] that are used as biorobotic actuators, due to their close relationship to challenging the compensation of hysteresis nonlinearity.…”