Electroactive polymers have been studied for artificial muscle applications in last decades. One of the EAP materials, 3M VHB acrylic tapes, have shown been outstanding electromechanical coupling performance. The scope of this study is to understand the electromechanical properties of VHB acrylic material. In addition, the research explores new practical designs of soft actuators. The basic des...

A new prosthetic hand with a fixed thumb and four fingers actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) type artificial muscle has been developed in this paper. Different from typical geared motor, SMA actuator is lightweight and silent, however shows a little short stroke and small attracting force per each unit. In order to achieve enough output force and motion range of each finger, multiple SMA type...

Abstract Compact sensing methods are desirable for ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) actuators in microrobotic and biomedical applications. In this paper a novel sensing scheme for IPMC actuators is proposed by bonding an IPMC and a PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) thin film with an insulating layer in between. The insulating layer thickness is properly designed to minimize the stiffness of th...

A promising actuator for high-speed flow control, referred to as a Plasma Synthetic Jet (P.S.J), is being studied by the DMAE department of the ONERA, and the Laplace laboratory of the CNRS, in France. This actuator was inspired by the “Sparkjet” device developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The PSJ, which produces a synthetic jet with high exhaust velocities, no ...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers many benefits to image-guided interventions, including excellent soft tissue distinction, little to no repositioning of the patient, and zero radiation exposure. The closed, narrow bore of a high field MRI scanner limits clinician access to the patient, such that an MR-compatible robot is essentially required for many potential interventions. A robotic sy...

The soft robot has many degrees of freedom, strong environmental adaptability, and good human–computer interaction ability. As the end-effector robot, gripper can grasp objects different shapes without destructivity. Based on theoretical analysis kinematics model flexible bending deformation air cavity were established. Accordingly, relationship between angle pressure was determined. Through ap...