This book covers the fundamental properties, modeling, and demonstration of Electroactive polymers in robotic applications. It particularly details artificial muscles and sensors. In addition, the book discusses the properties and uses in robotics applications of ionic polymer–metal composite actuators and dielectric elastomers.

This book covers the fundamental properties, modeling, and demonstration of Electroactive polymers in robotic applications. It particularly details artificial muscles and sensors. In addition, the book discusses the properties and uses in robotics applications of ionic polymer–metal composite actuators and dielectric elastomers.

Covers the field of EAP with attention to all aspects and full infrastructure, including the available materials, analytical models, processing techniques, and characterization methods. This second edition covers advances in EAP in electric EAP, electroactive polymer gels, ionomeric polymer-metal composites, and carbon nanotube actuators.

Giving fundamental information on one of the most promising families of smart materials, electroactive polymers (EAP) this exciting new titles focuses on the several biomedical applications made possible by these types of materials and their related actuation technologies. Each chapter provides a description of the specific EAP material and device configuration used, material processing, device assembling and testing, along with a description of the biomedical application. Edited by well-respected academics in the field of electroactive polymers with contributions from renowned international experts, this is an excellent resource for industrial and academic research scientists, engineers, technicians and graduate students working with polymer actuators or in the fields of polymer science.

Electroactive polymers have been the object of increasing academic and industrial interest and in the past ten to fifteen years substantial progress has been achieved in the development and the characterization of this important new class of conducting materials. These materials are usually classified in two large groups, according to the mode of their electric transport. One group includes polymers having transport almost exclusively of the ionic type and they are often called 'polymer electrolytes' or, in a broader way, 'polymer ionics'. The other group includes polymeric materials where the transport mechanism is mainly electronic in nature and which are commonly termed 'conducting polymers'. Ionically conducting polymers or polymer ionics may be typically described as polar macromolecular solids in which one or more of a wide range of salts has been dissolved. The most classic example is the combina tion of poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, and lithium salts, LiX. These PEO-LiX polymer ionics were first described and proposed for applications just over ten years ago. The practical relevance of these new materials was im mediately recognized and in the course of a few years the field expanded tremendously with the involvement of many academic and industrial lab oratories. Following this diversified research activity, the ionic transport mechanism in polymer ionics was soon established and this has led to the development of new host polymers of various types, new salts and advanced polymer architectures which have enabled room temperature conductivity to be raised by several orders of magnitude.

Soft Robotics in Rehabilitation explores the specific branch of robotics dealing with developing robots from compliant and flexible materials. Unlike robots built from rigid materials, soft robots behave the way in which living organs move and adapt to their surroundings and allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for the user. This book is a comprehensive reference discussing the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs. The book examines various techniques applied in soft robotics, including the development of soft actuators, rigid actuators with soft behavior, intrinsically soft actuators, and soft sensors. This book is perfect for graduate students, researchers, and professional engineers in robotics, control, mechanical, and electrical engineering who are interested in soft robotics, artificial intelligence, rehabilitation therapy, and medical and rehabilitation device design and manufacturing. - Outlines the application of soft robotic techniques to design platforms that provide rehabilitation therapy for disabled persons to help improve their motor functions - Discusses the application of soft robotics for rehabilitation of upper and lower extremities separated by various limbs - Offers readers the ability to find soft robotics devices, methods, and results for any limb, and then compare the results with other options provided in the book

Biomimetic Robotic Artificial Muscles presents a comprehensive up-to-date overview of several types of electroactive materials with a view of using them as biomimetic artificial muscles. The purpose of the book is to provide a focused, in-depth, yet self-contained treatment of recent advances made in several promising EAP materials. In particular, ionic polymer-metal composites, conjugated polymers, and dielectric elastomers are considered. Manufacturing, physical characterization, modeling, and control of the materials are presented. Namely, the book adopts a systems perspective to integrate recent developments in material processing, actuator design, control-oriented modeling, and device and robotic applications. While the main focus is on the new developments in these subjects, an effort has been made throughout the book to provide the reader with general, basic information about the materials before going into more advanced topics. As a result, the book is very much self-contained and expected to be accessible for a reader who does not have background in EAPs.Based on the good fundamental knowledge and the versatility of the materials, several promising biomimetic and robotic applications such robotic fish propelled by an IPMC tail, an IPMC energy harvester, an IPMC-based valveless pump, a conjugated polymer petal-driven micropump, and a synthetic elastomer actuator-enabled robotic finger are demonstrated.

Over the past few decades, there has been tremendous development on soft materials in soft robotics, energy generation and sensing applications. These soft materials are mostly polymers. Their compliant elasticity, good adaptability to external constraints, and biocompatibility make them suitable for those applications. Further, polymers that respond by changing their shape or size to an external stimulus such as electric field, magnetic field, heat, pressure, pH, and light have great potential for these applications. Among these stimuli responsive materials, electro responsive polymers (electroactive polymers (EAPs)) acquires great attention. Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have attracted great attention since their discovery in 1984 due to their flexibility, biocompatibility, easy fabrication and tunability through synthetic chemistry. As OECTs conduct both electronic and ionic charge, they are suitable for bioelectronic applications, such as recording electric activity of cells and tissues, detection of ions, metabolites, antigens related with various diseases, hormones, DNA, enzymes and neurotransmitter. In my dissertation, I will describe how we developed ionic electroactive polymers (iEAPs) and ionic liquid crystal elastomers (iLCEs) for the applications of soft robotics, energy harvesting (flexo-ionic effect), sensing and organic electrochemical transistors. Firstly, we engineered poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate based iEAPs for soft robotics application. Here, low voltage induced bending (converse flexoelectricity) of crosslinked poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), modified with thiosi-loxane (TS) and ionic liquid (1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophos-phate) (IL) is studied. In between 2[mu]m PEDOT:PSS electrodes at 1 V, it provides durable (95% retention under 5000 cycles) and relatively fast (2 s switching time) actuation with the second largest strain observed so far in iEAPs. In between 40 nm gold electrodes under 8 V DC voltage, the film can be completely curled up (270° bending angle) with 6% strain that, to the best of the knowledge, is unpreceded among iEAPs. These results render great potential for the TS/PEGDA/IL based electro-active actuators for soft robotic applications. Next, we developed an advanced electroactive anisotropic soft material using liquid crystals elastomers. Anisotropic characteristic of liquid crystals gives an additional degree of freedom than isotropic polymers to design these soft materials by programming the molecular structure. We invented a new class of electroactive material named ionic liquid crystal elastomers (iLCEs), where ionic liquid is incorporated in the polymer matrix. We demonstrated that the iLCEs can be used in mechanoelectrical transconduction (energy harvesting, flexo-ionic effect and bending sensing applications). Piezoelectricity and flexoelectricity are the two major classes of mechanoelectrical transconduction, where electrical current and voltages are generated in response to strain gradient in the latter as opposed to extensional strain in the former. Flexo-ionic effect is a similar phenomenon as flexoelectricity, where ionic polarization results in electric generation due to bending of polymer films. Here, we investigate the molecular alignment dependence of the flexoelectric coefficient and the sensitivity of the iLCEs. The measured flexo-ionic coefficients were found to strongly depend on the director alignment of the iLCE films and can be over 200[mu]C/m. This value is orders of magnitude higher than the flexo-electric coefficient found in insulating liquid crystals and is comparable to the well-developed ionic polymers (iEAPs). The shortest response times, i.e., the largest bandwidth of the flexo-ionic responses, is achieved in planar alignment, when the director is uniformly parallel to the substrates. These results render high potential for iLCE-based devices for applications in sensors and wearable micropower generators. Finally, we developed a substrate free, flexible OECT based on iLCE. We demonstrated that iLCEs can be used as solid electrolytes of OECTs. The precise control of the liquid-crystalline phase of the iLCE provides a means to control and tune the ion flow within the elastomer. Either isotropic films or films with a planar alignment led to higher ionic conductivities compared to a homeotropic or hybrid alignment. The normalized maximum transconductance gm/w of the most sensitive iLCE, was found to be the highest (7 Sm-1) among all solid state-based OECTs. The normalized maximum transconductance gm/w depends on the alignment of the elastomers, and the highest performance was found for isotropic and planar orientation. Similarly, the transient response of OECTs to square voltage pulses applied to the gate electrode is faster for devices with elastomers that provide high ionic conductivity. Switching times are in the few seconds range, which is comparable to previously reported OECTs based on solid electrolytes. iLCEs provide a new materials class that shows promise as electrolytes in OECTs. Furthermore, we characterized this OECT as a bending sensor. Advantages of this sensor are low voltage operation, high sensitivity, ability to sense the direction (i.e., upward or downward/left or right) of bending.

Dielectric Elastomers as Electromechanical Transducers provides a comprehensive and updated insight into dielectric elastomers; one of the most promising classes of polymer-based smart materials and technologies. This technology can be used in a very broad range of applications, from robotics and automation to the biomedical field. The need for improved transducer performance has resulted in considerable efforts towards the development of devices relying on materials with intrinsic transduction properties. These materials, often termed as "smart or "intelligent, include improved piezoelectrics and magnetostrictive or shape-memory materials. Emerging electromechanical transduction technologies, based on so-called ElectroActive Polymers (EAP), have gained considerable attention. EAP offer the potential for performance exceeding other smart materials, while retaining the cost and versatility inherent to polymer materials. Within the EAP family, "dielectric elastomers, are of particular interest as they show good overall performance, simplicity of structure and robustness. Dielectric elastomer transducers are rapidly emerging as high-performance "pseudo-muscular actuators, useful for different kinds of tasks. Further, in addition to actuation, dielectric elastomers have also been shown to offer unique possibilities for improved generator and sensing devices. Dielectric elastomer transduction is enabling an enormous range of new applications that were precluded to any other EAP or smart-material technology until recently. This book provides a comprehensive and updated insight into dielectric elastomer transduction, covering all its fundamental aspects. The book deals with transduction principles, basic materials properties, design of efficient device architectures, material and device modelling, along with applications. - Concise and comprehensive treatment for practitioners and academics - Guides the reader through the latest developments in electroactive-polymer-based technology - Designed for ease of use with sections on fundamentals, materials, devices, models and applications

The multidisciplinary issues involved in the development of biologically inspired intelligent robots include materials, actuators, sensors, structures, functionality, control, intelligence, and autonomy. This book reviews various aspects ranging from the biological model to the vision for the future.