• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.509-517
• /
• 2021

Smart materials capable of changing their characteristics in response to stimuli such as light, heat, pH, and electric and magnetic fields are promising for application to flexible electronics, soft robotics, and biomedicine. Compared with conventional rigid materials, these materials are typically composed of soft materials that improve the biocompatibility and allow for large and dynamic deformations in response to external environmental stimuli. Among them, smart magnetic materials are attracting immense attention owing to their fast response, remote actuation, and wide penetration range under various conditions. In this review, we report the material design and fabrication of smart magnetic materials. Furthermore, we focus on recent advances in their typical applications, namely, soft magnetic actuators, sensors for self-assembly, object manipulation, shape transformation, multimodal robot actuation, and tactile sensing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.401-415
• /
• 2021

Soft robots are promising devices for applications in drug delivery, sensing, and manufacturing. Traditional hard robotics are manufactured with rigid materials and their degrees of motion are constrained by the orientation of the joints. In contrast to rigid counterpart, soft robotics, employing soft and stretchable materials that easily deforms in shape, can realize complex motions (i.e., locomotion, swimming, and grappling) with a simple structure, and easily adapt to dynamic environment. Among them, the magnetic actuators exhibit unique characteristics such as rapid and accurate motion control, biocompatibility, and facile remote controllability, which make them promising candidates for the next-generation soft robots. Especially, the magnetic actuators instantly response to the stimuli, and show no-hysteresis during the recovery process, essential for continuous motion control. Here, we present the state-of-the-art fabrication process of magnetically controllable nano-/micro-composites, magnetically aligning process of the composites, and 1-dimensional/multi-dimensional multimodal motion control for the nextgeneration soft actuators.

• Journal of Magnetics
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.60-69
• /
• 2003

A review of mechanical sensing techniques based on magnetic methods is presented, with special reference to magnetoelastic strain gauges and force sensors. A novel strain sensor based on soft amorphous ribbons is described. Other types of magnetic sensors, for the measurement of torque and displacement are briefly discussed. An overview of magnetic actuators based on giant magnetostrictive materials, with some practical examples, is presented. Recent advances in the development and application of magnetic shape memory materials are discussed, together with the analysis of recent studies for the description of magnetic shape memory phenomena.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.429-436
• /
• 2007

In this study, we improved control performance of an EMV (electromechanical valve) system using a PM/EM (permanent magnet/electromagnet) hybrid EMA (electromagnetic actuator) and showed the feasibilities of both soft landing and fast transition of the EMV system using a simple PID control. The conventional EMV systems using only EM show significant nonlinear characteristics. Therefore, it is very difficult to control the valve position and several complex control schemes are used. This paper focused on the control performance improvement using a PM/EM hybrid actuator. In particular, a PM is used as a key design parameter such as a bias current of a magnetic bearing in order to improve the linear characteristic of the actuator, although most PM/EM hybrid actuators use a PM as a power saver during valve-open and -closed states. First, a FE (finite element) analysis was performed to confirm its linear static force characteristics. Then, both a test rig and a valve control system were built in order to prove experimentally the control performance improvement of the actuator. Finally, feasibilities of both soft landing and fast transition of the system were shown experimentally through gain-scheduled PID (proportional derivative integral) control.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.347-356
• /
• 2023

Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fibers have been widely applied in various fields, such as soft robots and biomimetic actuators, in a one-dimensional form. LCEs possess the characteristics of both fluidity and solid order, as well as the elasticity of rubber, and exhibit stimulus-response based on these properties. In particular, by programming the responsiveness to various stimuli such as heat, light, electric fields, and magnetic fields in terms of shape-changing, various movements such as lifting, twisting, and rotating can be realized with high degrees of freedom. Therefore, LCE fibers have the potential for application in various fields such as artificial muscles, soft robots, wearable technologies, and sensing technologies. The research on liquid crystal elastomer fibers is evaluated to have high applicability in various fields in the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a smart material that can include various functionalities beyond simple fibers. In this review, we introduce the structure and basic characteristics of liquid crystal elastomer fibers, the latest research trends on orientation-based fabrication methods, and various applications such as artificial muscles, smart fabrics, and soft robots.