• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제9권8호
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• pp.592-599
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• 2003

As one of the Principal modalities of human sensation, tactile feel is prerequisite for building wide variety of applications such as telemanipulation, virtual reality and medical engineering. A dynamic Braille display device based on a polymer actuator is presented. The actuator, often called artificial muscle actuator has advantageous features over the existing methods in terms of intrinsic softness, ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness and miniaturization. The principles of actuation with dielectric elastomer is introduced, and necessary considerations on the design of a tactile display device are discussed. The design of the device is described in detail including the fabrication process and driving electronics. Also, preliminary results of experiments are given to evaluate its performance.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제17권12호
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• pp.1032-1038
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• 2009

A polypyrrole (PPy)/alumina composite filler prepared via in-situ polymerization of pyrrole on alumina particles was incorporated into $Nafion^{(R)}$ to improve the performance of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators. The IPMCs with the pristine PPy without alumina support did not show bending displacements superior to that of the bare Nafion-based IPMC, except at a high PPy content of 4 wt%. This result was attributed to the low redox efficiency of the PPy alone in the IPMC and may have also been related to the modulus of the IPMC. However, at the optimized filler contents, the cyclic displacement of the IPMCs bearing the PPy/alumina filler was 2.2 times larger than that of the bare Nafion-based IPMC under an applied AC potential of 3 Vat 1 Hz. Even under a low AC potential of 1.5 V at 1 Hz, the displacement of the PPy/alumina-based IPMCs was a viable level of performance for actuator applications and was 2.7 times higher than that of the conventional Nafion-based IPMC. The generated blocking force was also improved with the PPy/aiumina composite filler. The greatly enhanced performance and the low-voltage-operational characteristic of the IPMCs bearing the PPy/alumina filler were attributed to the synergic effects of the neighboring alumina moiety near the PPy moiety involving electrochemical redox reactions.

• 세라미스트
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.16-26
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• 2020

Recently, polymer-metal composite (IPMC)-based ionic artificial muscle has been drawing a huge attention for its excellent soft actuator performance having outstanding soft actuator performance with efficient conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy under low working voltage. In addition, light, flexible and soft nature of IPMC and high bending strain response enabled development of versatile sensor application in association with soft actuator. In this paper, current issues of IPMC were discussed including standardizing preparation steps, relaxation under DC bias, inhibiting solvent evaporation, and improving poor output force. Solutions for these drawbacks of IPMC have recently been suggested in recent studies. After following explanation of the IPMC working mechanism, we investigate the main factors that affect the operating performance of the IPMC. Then, we reviewed the optimized IPMC actuator fabrication conditions especially for the preparation process, additive selection for a thicker membrane, water content, solvent substitutes, encapsulation, etc. Lastly, we considered the pros and cons of IPMCs for sensor application in a theoretical and experimental point of view. The strategies discussed in this paper to overcome such deficiencies of IPMCs are highly expected to provide a scope for IPMC utilization in soft robotics application.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.36-42
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• 2007

This paper presents mechanical design, fabrication and test of a biomimetic fish robot actuated by a unimorph piezoceramic actuator, LIPCA(Lightweight Piezo-Composite curved Actuator.) We have designed a linkage mechanism that can convert bending motion of the LIPCA into the caudal fin movement. This linkage system consists of a rack-pinion system and four-bar linkage. Four types of artificial caudal fins that resemble caudal fin shapes of ostraciiform subcarangiform, carangiform, and thunniform fish, respectively, are attached to the posterior part of the robotic fish. The swimming test under 300 $V_{pp}$ input with 0.6 Hz to 1.2 Hz frequency was conducted to investigate effect of tail beat frequency and shape of caudal fin on the swimming speed of the robotic fish. At the frequency of 0.9 Hz, the maximum swimming speeds of 1.632 cm/s, 1.776 cm/s, 1.612 cm/s and 1.51 cm/s were reached for fish robots with ostraciiform, subcarangiform carangiform and thunniform caudal fins, respectively. The Strouhal number, which means the ratio between unsteady force and inertia force, or a measure of thrust efficiency, was calculated in order to examine thrust performance of the present biomimetic fish robot. The calculated Strouhal numbers show that the present robotic fish does not fall into the performance range of a fast swimming robot.

• 방사선산업학회지
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

Active polymer gels expand and contract in response to certain environmental stimuli, such as the application of an electric field or a change in the pH level of the surroundings. This ability to achieve large, reversible deformations with no external mechanical loading has generated much interest in the use of these gels as biomimetic actuators and artificial muscles. In this study, poly (vinyl alcohol)(PVA) grafted acrylic acid monomer (PVA-g-AAc) hydrogels were prepared by $^{60}Co$ ${\gamma}-ray$ irradiation and their properties such as degree of grafting and weight swelling in electrostimulation as an artificial muscle and actuator were investigated.

• 한국공작기계학회논문집
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.14-20
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• 2006

In recent year, as the robot technology is developed, the researches on the artificial muscle actuator that enables robot to move dexterously like biological organ become active. Actuators are key technologies underpinning robotics. Breakthroughs in actuator technology, particular in terms of power-to-weight ratio, or energy-density, will have significant impacts upon the design and control of robotic system. In this paper, a new approach to design and control of shape memory alloy(SMA) actuator is presented to drive the robot hand. SMA wire is divided into many segments and their thermal states of the SMA are controlled individually in a binary manner. This control manner will reduce the hysteresis that the SMA material has and it becomes the fundamental technology to develop the anthropomorphic robot hand. In this paper, the mechanism In the digital step motor of the shape memory alloy that is driven by the segmented binary control, which is a new control technique, is studied. This SMA digital step actuator applies for the robot hand and the driving mechanism of the robot hand is investigated.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2005년도 창립60주년 기념 추계 학술대회
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• pp.126.1-126.1
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• 2005

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제57권4호
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• pp.725-728
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• 2008

An elbow orthosis with a pneumatic rubber actuator has been developed to assist and enhance upper limbs movements and has been examined for the effectiveness. The effectiveness of the elbow orthosis was examined by comparing muscular activities during alternate dumbbell curl motion wearing and not wearing the orthosis. The subjects participated in the experiment were younger adults in their twenties. The subjects were instructed to perform dumbbell curl motion in a sitting position wearing and not wearing orthosis in turn and a dynamometer was used to measure elbow joint torque outputs in an isokinetic mode. Orthosis was controlled using contractile muscle force that is measured from force sensor through cDAQ-9172 board. The air pressure of the pneumatic actuator was 0.3MPa the most suitable air pressure. For the analysis of muscular activities, Electromyography of the subjects was measured during alternate dumbbell curl motion. The experiment results showed that the muscular activities wearing the elbow orthosis were reduced. With this, we confirmed the effectiveness of the developed elbow orthosis.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제28권11호
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• pp.1251-1258
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• 2011

With the help of nanoscale materials like carbon nanotube (CNT), there is the potential to develop new actuators that will provide higher work per cycle than previous actuator technologies, and generate much higher mechanical strength. In this study, the electrochemical actuation characteristics of nano carbon materials were experimentally studied to develop electrochemical actuators. The electrochemical actuators were composed of aqueous NaCl electrolyte and their actuating electrodes were made of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/polystyrene composite and graphene respectably. Actuation is proportional to charging transfer rate, and the electrolysis with an AC voltage input has very complex characteristics. To quantify the actuation property, the strain responses and output model were studied based on electrochemical effects between the nano carbon films and the electrolyte.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 제어로봇시스템학회 2002년도 ICCAS
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• pp.105.5-105
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• 2002

Digital Polymer Motor (DPM) based on dielectric elastomer is presented. It includes all the supplementary parts for actuation such as micro-controller, DC-DC converter etc. DPM can be operated by itself with the program embedded and controlled via serial interface with PC. The actuator accomplishes bidirectional actuation and compliance controllability, which are important characteristics for a biomimetic artificial muscle actuator. DPM accomplish these requirements without any mechanical substitute or complicated algorithms. Its basic concepts and working principles are addressed with modeling and simulation and the compliance controllability are verified by conducting several experiments. $\textbullet$ Polymer, Dielectric, Biomimetic