School of Computing, Engineering and Technology

Development of an EAP mechanism with precision and control capabilities

This project will focus on development of smart material based soft robotic systems and mechanisms.

Award

MRes | MPhil | PhD | MSc by Research

Start Date

Usually February and October - at individual School's discretion

Research Opportunities

Summary

Polymers such as Electroactive polymers (EAPs) can change shape and/or dimensions in response to an applied electric field. Generally, EAPs are categorized into ionic and electronic types. Ionic EAPs are stimulated through electrical activation by migration of ions or solvents and examples include Conducting Polymers (CPs) and Ionic Polymer-Metallic Composites (IPMCs). Examples of electronic EAPs include dielectric elastomers, electrostrictive polymers, liquid crystal polymers and piezoelectric polymers which are activated through electric fields and coulomb forces. EAPs have garnered significant interest through applications of soft actuators in robotics specially as artificial muscles. EAPs have also found applications as sensors to measure blood pressure, pulse rate monitoring and chemical sensing etc.
There are number of challenges in precisely sensing and controlling systems and mechanisms with EAP actuators and sensors. Specially two identical EAP actuators/sensors or mechanisms which are fabricated using identical process can have remarkably different behaviours. Additionally, the behaviour of a single EAP actuator/sensor can vary over time due to aging and degradation from repeated usage. Similarly, custom nonstandard EAP mechanisms can exhibit complex nonlinearities that hinder precise sensing and control. The afore mentioned issues are some of the challenges to be overcome before significant applications are developed in the field of robotics.

The aim of this research is to systematically develop an Electroactive Polymer system/mechanism with predictable characteristics and precision self-sensing/soft-sensing and control capabilities.

The key objectives of the proposed research problem can be given as:

Investigate Electroactive polymers and other stimuli-responsive polymers suitable for the purpose of self-sensing/soft-sensing and control applications.
Design and standardise a soft robotic benchmark system/mechanism to investigate the proposed fundamental issues.
Characterise material properties to support sensing and control capabilities of the proposed benchmark system/mechanism.
Determine, design and develop a suitable self-sensing/soft-sensing technique which can be fabricated/incorporated into the system/mechanism to measure the proposed state and physical quantity for control.
Investigate modelling and control (model based & model free) techniques to perform precision control for position or force tracking, locomotion etc.
Perform validation and consolidation of self-sensing and control characteristics through experimentation on the developed EAP benchmark mechanism.