High‐Displacement, Fiber‐Reinforced Shape Memory Alloy Soft Actuator with Integrated Sensors and Its Equivalent Network Model

Mersch, Johannes; Bruns, Mathis; Nocke, Andreas; Cherif, Chokri; Gerlach, Gerald

doi:10.1002/aisy.202000221

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…When 10 % strain was reached, it was kept constant for 30 s in order to evaluate the relaxation behavior. 10 % maximum strain were chosen because that is a sufficient strain level for many applications even for soft actuators with a bending angle over 180 ° [5].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…have shown for soft robotic applications, the combination of fibers with an elastomer matrix can be advantageous [3,4]. In the textile the sensors can be integrated along with fibershaped actuators and reinforcement yarns to achieve robust, yet highly flexible structures [5].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This can be further enhanced by ondulating the yarn in a textile process [12]. However, this leads to J-shaped resistance responses with first structural and then material deformation, which results in low or no sensitivity in the first few percent of strain [5,13]. Additionally, if multiple conductive yarns are combined in a textile, e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Stretchable and Compliant Textile Strain Sensors

et al. 2021

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This paperpresents the manufacturing process and electromechanical characterization of highly stretchable textile strain sensors. These sensors can be used in selfsensing soft robots or motion tracking. To improve linearity and compliance of silver-plated yarns, the braiding technology is used to fabricate both resistive and capacitive strain sensors. Braiding is a highly productive and automated process and the resulting sensor properties can be improved. Moreover, the braids can be further processed to complex textiles. In the fabrication process different base materials are used and the braiding density as well as the composition of the conductive threads in the braid are varied. With the produced samples electromechanical characterization experiments are carried out to analyze the sensors' properties, e.g. gauge factor, linearity, hysteresis and compliance. The experimental results are correlated with the material and process parameters. Both, braiding density and base material, have an enormous influence on the sensor characteristics. The most promising sensor type was integrated into a soft actuator. This demonstrates the feasibility of such textile sensors to provide self-sensing capabilities and proprioception to soft robots.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stretchable and Compliant Textile Strain Sensors

et al. 2021

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“…Han et al developed an SMA-based textile morphing flower that blooms under an electric current and confirmed its various modes of deformation [ 32 ]. Mersch et al presented an SMA-based integrated soft sensor–actuator system with a bending angle of 270° [ 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shape Memory Alloys in Textile Platform: Smart Textile-Composite Actuator and Its Application to Soft Grippers

Shin

Han

2023

Sensors

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In recent years, many researchers have aimed to construct robotic soft grippers that can handle fragile or unusually shaped objects without causing damage. This study proposes a smart textile-composite actuator and its application to a soft robotic gripper. An active fiber and an inactive fiber are combined together using knitting techniques to manufacture a textile actuator. The active fiber is a shape memory alloy (SMA) that is wire-wrapped with conventional fibers, and the inactive fiber is a knitting yarn. A knitted textile structure is flexible, with an excellent structure retention ability and high compliance, which is suitable for developing soft grippers. A driving source of the actuator is the SMA wire, which deforms under heating due to the shape memory effect. Through experiments, the course-to-wale ratio, the number of bundling SMA wires, and the driving current value needed to achieve the maximum deformation of the actuator were investigated. Three actuators were stitched together to make up each finger of the gripper, and layer placement research was completed to find the fingers’ suitable bending angle for object grasping. Finally, the gripping performance was evaluated through a test of grasping various object shapes, which demonstrated that the gripper could successfully lift flat/spherical/uniquely shaped objects.

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“…Results showed that by extending the hinged width of AHFRP by two and three times from the hinged width of 40 mm, the maximum deformation was raised to 42.7 % and 64.6 %, respectively. Mersch et al [48] created SMA-based elastomeric actuators which were able to achieve a bending angle of 270 • at a power input of 18 W. Araújo et al [49] manufactured carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) integrated with NiTi SMA wire actuators in a single direction. The samples exhibited standard thermal buckling behaviour, which caused the beam specimen's tip deflection to increase as the temperature rose to 100 • C. A bigger and more stable decrease in thermal buckling was found in CFRP integrated with SMA wires.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%