Interaction-Based Design of Deformable Machines

As the beginning of Part II, this chapter explores method to develop deformable machines from actively deformable materials. Hypothesis is proposed to solve activeness and deformabUity problems through design. The strategy is to divide whole system into two parts, material and electric field interfaced by local interaction between them. Electric field generator is designed in chapter 5, and shape of the gel in chapter 6, respectively. 

In this chapter, it is examined that the effect of activeness and deformabil-ity on deformation response of the gels both in simulation and experiments. Through varying design and control parameters, Scale effect of activeness and deformability is explored. Before conducting experiments, we explain the procedure of material preparation and experimental setup. Results of this chapter would serve as foundation to design mechanical system containing actively deformable materials like electroactive polymers. 

Common approach to design deformable machines is to divide rigid structures into small pieces and connect them by active or passive joints. In other case, 

This chapter was adapted from in part, by permission, M. Otake, M. Inaba, and H. Inoue. Development of Gel Robots made of Electro-Active Polymer PAMPS Gel , Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Systems Man and Cybernetics, vol.2, pp.788-793, 1999. 

Otake Electroactive Polymer Gel Robots, STAR 59, pp. 63-76. springerlink.com (c) Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 

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