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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
A Robotic Gripper Based On Conducting Polymer Actuators, Gursel Alici, Nam N. Huynh
A Robotic Gripper Based On Conducting Polymer Actuators, Gursel Alici, Nam N. Huynh
Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)
Conducting polymer actuators or as widely known as artificial muscles have many promising features such as being biocompatible and suitable to open loop control, and having high force to weight ratio. If properly engineered, they can be employed as actuators plus joints like active flexure joints articulating monolithic structures. Such structures or systems not containing any sliding and/or rolling components potentially have high positioning accuracy, which is crucial for micro/nano manipulation applications. In this paper, we employ a bending type polymer actuator to articulate two separate rigid links made up of carbon fibre such that a two-finger gripper is formed. …
Towards Improving Positioning Accuracy Of Conducting Polymer Actuators, Gursel Alici, Nam N. Huynh
Towards Improving Positioning Accuracy Of Conducting Polymer Actuators, Gursel Alici, Nam N. Huynh
Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)
Recently, there have been significant developments in conducting polymers, particularly in their synthesis and use as electromechanical actuators. This is mainly due to their many promising features including biocompatibility, high force to weight ratio, suitability to open loop control. On the other hand, they suffer from nonlinear problems such as hysteresis and creep. With this in mind, it is the aim of this study to evaluate the existence level of these nonlinearities and their mathematical modeling in order to improve the positioning accuracy of conducting polymer actuators. The polymer actuator considered in this study which has a symmetrical structure can …
Poly(3-Methylthiophene) Electrochemical Actuators Showing Increased Strain And Work Per Cycle At Higher Operating Stresses, Van-Tan Truong, Philip G. Whitten, Jie Ding, Binbin Xi, Geoffrey M. Spinks, G G. Wallace
Poly(3-Methylthiophene) Electrochemical Actuators Showing Increased Strain And Work Per Cycle At Higher Operating Stresses, Van-Tan Truong, Philip G. Whitten, Jie Ding, Binbin Xi, Geoffrey M. Spinks, G G. Wallace
Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)
Conducting polymers, such as polythiophenes, are promising low voltage actuator materials. The performance of these materials has improved significantly in recent years. A remaining problem, however, is the significant decline in the actuation strain produced when the external stress is increased. Using a poly(3-methylthiophene) actuator in an ionic liquid electrolyte it is shown that the isotonic actuation actually increases with increasing applied stress. The work output per cycle consequently increases at higher stresses, which is very desirable for practical devices. Although theoretically predicted, these results are the first demonstration of the increased actuator performance at higher operating stresses. The actuation …