IPMC Monolithic Thin Film Robots Fabricated Using a Multi-Layer Casting Process
Akio Kodaira, Kinji Asaka, Tetsuya Horiuchi, Gen Endo, Hiroyuki Nabae, Koichi Suzumori
Abstract
In this letter, we report on a multi-layer casting process of an ionic polymer metal composite actuator to produce a monolithic thin film robot (MTFR). This robot is developed on the basis of the novel concept of a soft robot, which consists of a body united with actuators and does not require mechanical and electrical assembly process. An MTFR is made from only one thin film that involves membranes of a variety of thicknesses. The thick parts of the membrane function as bone structures, and the thin parts as actuators. This integral multi-function structure of the MTFR realizes an assembly-less manufacturing process. To produce the monolithic film with a distributed thickness,we propose the use of a multi-layer casting process. To demonstrate the potential of an MTFR for use in a biomimetic application, we manufactured butterfly- and anomalocaris-like MTFRs. Both the robots can be controlled by applying periodic voltage signals from only one electrode, and each actuator can be driven separately by utilizing the resonance phenomena.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2019_ipmcmonolithicth,
title = {IPMC Monolithic Thin Film Robots Fabricated Using a Multi-Layer Casting Process},
author = {Akio Kodaira and Kinji Asaka and Tetsuya Horiuchi and Gen Endo and Hiroyuki Nabae and Koichi Suzumori},
booktitle = {RA-L 2019},
year = {2019}
}