Development of an ionic polymer–metal composite stepper motor using a novel actuator model

Abstract

A novel ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuated stepper motor was developed in order to demonstrate an innovative design process for complete IPMC systems. The motor was developed by utilizing a novel model for IPMC actuators integrated with the complete mechanical model of the motor. The dynamic, nonlinear IPMC model can accurately predict the displacement and force actuation in air for a large range of input voltages as well as accounting for interactions with mechanical systems and external loads. By integrating this geometrically scalable IPMC model with a mechanical model of the motor mechanism an appropriate size IPMC strip has been chosen to achieve the required motor specifications. The entire integrated system has been simulated and its performance verified. The system has been built and the experimental results validated to show that the motor works as simulated and can indeed achieve continuous 360 rotation, similar to conventional motors. This has proven that the model is an indispensable design tool for integrated IPMC actuators into real systems. This newly developed system has demonstrated the complete design process for smart material actuator systems, representing a large step forward and aiding in the progression of IPMCs towards wide acceptance as replacements for traditional actuators.

A compliant surgical robotic instrument with integrated IPMC sensing and actuation

“…As such a combined model for the robotic device and IPMC is needed. This must include the robotic parameters as well as a geometrically scalable IPMC model such as that described in [21,22]. A schematic of the IPMCSR is shown in Figure 2 with all the relevant robot coordinates systems, as defined by the standard Denavit-Hartenberg notation, as well as the robot geometric parameters.…”

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

“…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).…”

“…The IPMC’s high potential for various applications in robotic actuators (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), artificial muscles (Annabestani et al, 2016a, 2018; Shahinpoor and Kim, 2000), and dynamic sensors (Shahinpoor, 2003) has made the behavior identification and prediction of this smart material as a field of interest. Precision of the most models that were introduced to predict IPMC’s behavior (such as Volterra series (Kothera and Leo, 2005), neural networks (Truong and Ahn, 2011), Box–Jenkins and auto-regressive moving average with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) methods (Yun and Kim, 2006a, 2006b), nonlinear auto-regressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) structure fuzzy model and particle swarm optimization methods (Chi et al, 2011; Nam and Ahn, 2012), ANFIS-NARX model (Annabestani and Naghavi, 2014a, 2014b), and ANFIS-NARX with hysteresis modification (Zamyad et al, 2018)) depends on the output feedback (Zamyad and Naghavi, 2018).…”

How does clamping pressure influence actuation performance of soft ionic polymer–metal composites?

“…The IPMC actuators [2][3][4] have several advantages, such as low driving voltage or current, large strain, biomimetic activation and low power consumption. Therefore, the IPMC actuators have many potential applications in biomimetic robots [5][6][7][38][39][40], industrial and biomedical devices [8], and space-effective manipulators [9][10][11][12].…”