Modelling of Soft Bending Actuator Using Cosserat Rod PDEs

This article presents a novel design of a continuum arm, which has the ability to extend and bend efficiently. Numerous designs and experiments have been done to different dimensions on both types of McKibben pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) in order to study their performances. The contraction and extension behaviour have been illustrated with single contractor actuators and single extensor actuators, respectively. The tensile force for the contractor actuator and the compressive force for the extensor PMA are thoroughly explained and compared. Furthermore, the bending behaviour has been explained for a single extensor PMA, multi extensor actuators and multi contractor actuators. A two-section continuum arm has been implemented from both types of actuators to achieve multiple operations. Then, a novel construction is proposed to achieve efficient bending behaviour of a single contraction PMA. This novel design of a bending-actuator has been used to modify the presented continuum arm. Two different position control strategies are presented, arising from the results of the modified soft robot arm experiment. A cascaded position control is applied to control the position of the end effector of the soft arm at no load by efficiently controlling the pressure of all the actuators in the continuum arm. A new algorithm is then proposed by distributing the x, y and z-axis to the actuators and applying an effective closed-loop position control to the proposed arm at different load conditions.

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Electro-Active Paper as a Flexible Mechanical Sensor, Actuator and Energy Harvesting Transducer: A Review

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18103474 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (10) ◽

pp. 3474 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Asif Khan ◽

Faisal Raza Khan ◽

Heung Soo Kim

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Polyvinylidene Fluoride ◽

Mechanical Vibration ◽

Hybrid Nanocomposites ◽

Vibration Sensor ◽

Vibration Energy ◽

Future Research ◽

Energy Scavenging ◽

Vibration Energy Harvester ◽

Bending Actuator

Electro-active paper (EAPap) is a cellulose-based smart material that has shown promising results in a variety of smart applications (e.g., vibration sensor, piezo-speaker, bending actuator) with the merits of being flexible, lightweight, fracture tolerant, biodegradable, naturally abundant, cheap, biocompatible, and with the ability to form hybrid nanocomposites. This paper presents a review of the characterization and application of EAPap as a flexible mechanical vibration/strain sensor, bending actuator, and vibration energy harvester. The working mechanism of EAPap is explained along with the various parameters and factors that influence the sensing, actuation, and energy harvesting capabilities of EAPap. Although the piezoelectricity of EAPap is comparable to that of commercially available polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), EAPap has the preferable merits in terms of natural abundance and ample capacity of chemical modification. The article would provide guidelines for the characterization and application of EAPap in mechanical sensing, actuation, and vibration energy scavenging, along with the possible limitations and future research prospects.

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