Abstract
By bonding micron-thin polymer layers with an electrically conductive layer, we can utilize the bi-metal effect to create a soft, thin, electrically-activated thermal actuator (ETA), which can be used in printed soft robots. Using ETAs have shown quite remarkable potential in previous works. However, to reveal their true capabilities, we propose to utilize a multi-layered ETA. In this research, we analytically model the actuator for both the bi-, and more importantly, tri-layer ETAs and analyze their behavior. We develop a simple intuitive model to better explain the benefits of the tri-layer actuation and to estimate the optimal design parameters. We verify the models by conducting an experiment to measure the curvature change for different third layer thicknesses. The experiments show a significant improvement in performance of the tri-layer actuators and display a good fit between the simplified analytic model and the full model.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | ICRA 2017 - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation |
Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. |
Pages | 6712-6717 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781509046331 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 21 Jul 2017 |
Event | 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2017 - Singapore, Singapore Duration: 29 May 2017 → 3 Jun 2017 |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation |
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ISSN (Print) | 1050-4729 |
Conference
Conference | 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2017 |
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Country/Territory | Singapore |
City | Singapore |
Period | 29/05/17 → 3/06/17 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 IEEE.