Robotic Prototypes

Animals have offered good examples of motions and movements. Comparing with conventional electroactive materials and systems, DEs share more similarities with natural muscles such as soft and lightweight. Multiple types of robot prototypes, which can walk, fly, or grip, made of DEs have been investigated and demonstrated. 

Figure I. Mobile robot prototyping usedfor testing and validations...

A mobile robot prototype that is shown in Figures 1 and 2, and a wheelchair depicted in Figure 27 were used as a platform to implement the control hardware and the software described in this work. 

Prototype Integrated with a Robotic Crawler Platform... 

Lim CK, Peters TJ (1984) Urine and faecal porphyrin profiles by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography in the porphyrias. Clin Chim Acta 139 55-63 Minder El, Vuilleumier JP, Vonderschmitt DJ (1992) Prototype application of robot in the clinical laboratory enabling fully automated quantification of fecal porphyrins. Clin Chem 38 516-521... 

Robotically operated microwave batch reactors incorporating several of the design features of the MBR and an earlier prototype, but with a lower capacity (2-5 ml) have been developed commercially for rapid synthesis, primarily of candidates for drug discovery. These systems can operate under atmospheric or elevated pressure, the upper limits of which are dependent upon individual designs. 

On the basis of these initial considerations, a plate-based electrochemical robotic system was conceived (Fig. 14.14). The system was described in detail by Erichsen et al. in 2005.66 However, the first prototype was introduced already in 2001.67 Standard microtiter plates are used as reaction wells in which the miniaturized electrodes are immersed in an automated fashion to perform electrochemical experiments. Accurate positioning of the miniaturized electrodes is achieved by... 

Robot-based soluhons are available from Frichon Shr Link (Waukesha, Wl) and GKSS (Hamburg, Germany), although GKSS provides only prototyping and application development services. 

The visualization of virtual prototypes calls for the processing of the data with dependence on the visualization techniques. Apart from purely realistic visuaUzation, complexity-reducing models and symbolic visualization are used as well. Mixed models of both methods are most widely spread. Metaphors for visualization of simulation results, for example, are used in FEM aneilysis (overlaying of paint leveling) or the representation of paint coat thickness in robot simulation (Brown 1996). 

Koutenaei, B.A., Wilson, E., Monfaredi, R., Peters, C., Kronreif, G., Cleary, K. Robotic natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (R-NOTES) Literature review and prototype system. Minimally Invasive Therapy Allied Technologies 24(1), 18-23(2015)... 

K. Hwang, W. Hsiao, G. Shing, K. Chen, Rapid Prototyping Platform for Robotics Applications, IEEE Transactions on Education, 54 (2011) 236-246. 

Mittelstadt, B. D., et al., The Evolution of a Surgical Robot from Prototype to Human Clinical Trial, Proc. Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, 1994, Pittsburgh. 

To construct the IPMC/PVDF sensori-actuator, a PVDF film (30 /tm thick. Measurement Specialties Inc.) is bonded to an IPMC (340 /itm thick, Environmental Robotics Inc.) with an insulating layer (Polyvinyl chloride PVC film, 30 /Ltm thick) in between. The Fast-Cure Elastic Epoxy (Polysciences Inc., Warrington, PA) is used in bonding. The design of the IPMC/PVDF structure is illustrated in Fig. 8.1, where a picture of the IPMC/PVDF prototype is shown at the bottom. 

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. 

Yeom and Oh (2009)]. Fig. 9.1 shows two prototypes of robotic fish that are propelled and maneuvered with an IPMC-based caudal fin, which were developed by the Smart Microsystems Laboratory at Michigan State University. The prototype in Fig. 9.1 was used in the model validation later in this section. The body of the robot was rigid with a streamlined shape, and it housed rechargeable batteries and various electronic components that enabled untethered operation of the robot. The robot had a length of 20 cm without the tail and its maximum diameter was 5.7 cm. 

Fig. 9.1 Prototypes of IPMC-propelled robotic fish, developed at Michigan State University. The prototype in (a) was used in the experimental study reported here.

Fig. 9.36 The prototype of the robotic finger. Reprinted from [Chuc et al. (2010)] with permission.

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