Miniature, lightweight, miser actuators that operate similar to biological muscles can be used to develop robotic devices with unmatched capabilities to impact many technology areas. Electroactive polymers (EAP) offer the potential to producing such actuators and their main attractive feature is their ability to induce relatively large bending or longitudinal strain. Generally, these materials ...

In this paper static and dynamic responses of a fixed-fixed microbeam to electrostatic force and mechanical shock for different cases have been studied. The governing equations whose solution holds the answer to all our questions about the mechanical behavior is the nonlinear elasto-electrostatic equations. Due to the nonlinearity and complexity of the derived equations analytical solution are ...

We have performed mechanical and electrical characterization of individual as-grown, vertically oriented carbon nanofibers (CNFs) using in situ techniques, where such high-aspect-ratio, nanoscale structures are of interest for three-dimensional (3D) electronics, in particular 3D nano-electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS). Nanoindentation and uniaxial compression tests conducted in an in situ nanome...

We investigate the energy consumption and seek-time performance of different actuator types for nanopositioners, with emphasis on their use in a parallel-probe-based data-storage system. Analytical models are derived to calculate the energy consumption and performance of electrodynamic (coil and permanent magnet) and comb-drive actuators. The equations are used to simulate the operation of prob...

A general theoretical model using the coupling effect between the torsion and bending is presented in this paper, which characterizes the static properties of the electrostatic torsional micromirror, especially its pull-in effect. A set of normalized equations governing the static actuation properties of the torsional micromirror based on the parallel plate capacitor model is derived to demonst...

Electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and fabric filters (FF) are the main air pollution control equipment utilized to clean dust laden fumes from utility boilers. The choice among these systems depends on specific site conditions such as dust characteristics, required efficiency, gas flowrate and temperature. ESP are generally characterized by higher capital investments and lower operating charges...

Programmable matter is a digital material having computation, sensing, and actuation capabilities as continuous properties active over its whole extent. To make programmable matter economical to fabricate, we want to use electromagnetic direct drive, rather than clockwork, to actuate the particles. Previous attempts to fabricate small scale (below one centimeter) robotic systems with electromag...

The design hypothesis, architectures, and computational modeling of a novel peptide-based nanoactuator are presented in this paper. We engineered the -helical coiled-coil portion of the yeast transcriptional activator peptide called GCN4 to obtain an environmentally responsive nanoactuator. The dimeric coiled-coil peptide consists of two identical approximately 4.5 nm long and approximately 3 n...

As the largest organ in the human body, the skin provides the important sensory channel for humans to receive external stimulations based on touch. By the information perceived through touch, people can feel and guess the properties of objects, like weight, temperature, textures, and motion, etc. In fact, those properties are nerve stimuli to our brain received by different kinds of receptors i...

Controlled actuation of electroactive polymers with embedded high dielectric nanoparticles is theoretically analyzed. If the inclusions are placed randomly in the elastomer body, the composite always contracts along the direction of the applied field. For a simple cubic distribution of inclusions, contraction occurs if the applied field is directed along the [001] direction of the lattice. For ...