Ionic polymer–metal composites (IPMCs) are one type of wet electroactive polymers that show promising actuating properties in many bio-inspiring underwater robotic applications. In these applications, 3-dimensional kinematic motions are desirable to generate high efficient thrust and maneuverability. However, traditional IPMCs are limited in being only able to generate bending motion. In this p...

Hard-bodied robots’ operations always are limited because of their rigid structures. Recently, researchers has been inspired by some animals because they can exhibit complex movement with soft structure. Conventional manipulators operate difficultly because of their rigid links in some highly congested environments. They design soft robots, to replace traditional robots with rigid links. With a...

⎯ The nonlinear dynamics of a parallel-plate electrostatically driven microstructure has been investigated. Simulations and experimental results on devices fabricated in an epi-poly process confirm that instability is avoided by a timely reversal of the rate of change of the drive voltage. A 5.5V peak sine wave with frequency higher than 300 Hz allows repetitive microstructure motion up to 70% ...

A hydrodynamic scaling model of droplet actuation in an electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWD) actuator is presented that takes into account the effects of contact angle hysteresis, drag from the filler fluid, drag from the solid walls, and change in the actuation force while a droplet traverses a neighboring electrode. Based on this model, the threshold voltage, VT, for droplet actuation is estima...

In this work, we have applied optical low-coherence reflectometry (OLCR), implemented with infra-red light propagating in fiberoptic paths, to perform static and dynamic analyses on piezo-actuated glass micro-membranes. The actuator was fabricated by means of thin-film piezoelectric MEMS technology and was employed for modifying the micro-membrane curvature, in view of its application in micro-...

This paper provides an overview of fabrication and design of CMOS-based microelectromechanical systems with emphasis on inertial sensor and data storage applications. High-aspect-ratio (4.4:1) microstructures can be fabricated using conventional CMOS processing followed by a sequence of maskless dry-etching steps. The CMOS dielectric and metallization layers, normally used for electrical interc...

Blood is the gold standard sample medium that can provide a wide variety of useful biological information for the diagnosis of various diseases. For portable point-of-care diagnosis, blood extraction systems have attracted attention as easier, safer, and more rapid methods of collecting small blood volumes. In this paper, we introduce a novel self-powered one-touch blood extraction system creat...

This paper addresses the experimental identification of a servo actuator which is used in many industrial applications. Because the system consisted of electrical and mechanical components, the behavior of the system was nonlinear. In addition, the under load behavior of this servo was different. The load torque was considered as the input and a two input-one output model was presented for t...

This paper presents the design and experimental validation of dc-dynamic biasing for > 50× switching time improvement in severely underdamped fringing-field electrostatic MEMS actuators. The electrostatic fringing-field actuator is used to demonstrate the concept due to its robust device design and inherently low damping conditions. In order to accurately quantify the gap height versus voltage ...

Soft robots have the potential to greatly improve human-robot interaction via intrinsically safe, compliant designs. However, new compliant materials used in soft robotics – artificial muscles – are fabricated with poor tolerances and have time-varying dynamics. Therefore, a key technical challenge is to develop adaptive control algorithms for these materials. Here, we take a novel bioinspired ...