Robotic Applications of EAPs

In Chapter 9, we move on to discuss a few device and robotic applications of EAP materials, by drawing heavily on the advances in material development and modeling that are discussed in prior chapters. These application examples include a robotic fish propelled by an IPMC tail, an IPMC energy harvester, an IPMC-based valveless pump, a conjugated polymer petal-driven micropump, and a synthetic elastomer actuator-enabled robotic finger. Most discussions of these examples are supported with extensive experimental results. 

In this chapter, we extend and apply the results on EAP materials and models to a few device and robotic applications. A robotic fish propelled by an IPMC caudal fin is first considered in Section 9.1. The use of IPMC for low-frequency energy harvesters is studied in Section 9.2. The design of an IPMC-enabled valveless pump is discussed in Section 9.3. We then present a novel micropump actuated by conjugated polymer petals, supported by both analytical and experimental results. Finally, in Section 9.5 we investigate the design, prototyping, and control of a robotic finger powered by dielectric elastomer actuators. 

The ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC, which is also known as ICPF in the robotics field) [10, 11] is one of the electroactive polymers that have shown potential for practical applications. The IPMC is an chemically plated electroactive polymer (EAP) material that bends when subjected to a voltage across its thickness (Figure 8.1). A Nafion-gold composite type IPMC [12], which contained the sodium ion, has a relatively good... 

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