This homepage is the electroactive polymer actuators website of the JPL's NDEAA Technologies.
Electroactive polymers (EAP) are being developed to enable effective,
miniature, inexpensive, light and low power actuators for planetary
applications. Various EAP materials, also called artificial muscles, are being
investigated and new methods of characterizing them are being developed. A
series of applications were demonstrated and can be seen on the EAP-in-Action
homepage (video clippings). These applications include surface wiper,
robotic arm components (lifter and gripper) and haptic interface. The surface
wiper was demonstrated to be effective in removing minute dust particles and it
was selected in 1999 as a baseline technology for the MUSES-CN mission. Initial plans
involved the use of a pair of EAP surface wipers for dust removal from the
visual/IR window of the Nanorover. The MUSES-CN flight project is the world's
first asteroid sample return mission and it is a collaboration between Japan's
Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences and NASA, and is scheduled for
launch in January 2002.
Even though the mission was cancelled, the selection of EAP actuated wiper as a
baseline for this mission has been a major milestone that led to a worldwide
recognition of the potential of these materials.
The material that was used for bending the surface wiper is known as IPMC
(Ion-exchange Polymer Metal Composite) and our study indicates that there are
many challenges that still need to be overcome before the material can be
transition to space flight. These challenges include: permanent deformation of
the material under DC voltage, the material dehydrates though the protective
coating, and electrolysis takes place during activation above 1.23-V.
In recognition of the limitations of EAP as
actuators and artificial muscles, Dr. Bar-Cohen initiated an SPIE International
Conference on the subject, which was held in Newport Beach, CA on March 1-2,
1999. Also, a webpage was formed to link the various EAP websites worldwide:
WorldWide EAP Actuators (Artificial Muscles) Webhub.
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Robotic arm with 4-finger EAP gripper that is lifted/dropped by an EAP actuator |
Dust wiper using an ESLI blade actuated by a bending-EAP Li+/Gold IPMC (courtacy of Dr. Oguro, ONRI) |
Simulated EAP dust wiper |
News clipping covering the JPL's NDEAA
EAP R&D activity
1996 NASA Telerobotics Review - Low Mass Muscle Actuators (LoMMAs)
"Polymer Piezoelectric
Transducers for Ultrasonic NDE" NDTnet -
September 1996, Vol. 1, No. 09
**The following requires Acrobat Reader**
1997 NASA Telerobotics Review - LoMMAs
Electroactive
Polymer (EAP) Actuators - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1997
EAP
Robotics - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1998, 3329-07
EAP
Materials - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1998., paper 3324-32
EAP
Ion-Exchange (bending actuator/sensor) - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1998
Robotic Arm
Actuated by EAP and Operated Equivalently to Human Arm and Hand -
Robotics98, Albuquerque, NM, April 1998
"IPMC as Biomimetic Sensors,
Actuators & Artificial Muscles," Smart Materials & Structures
J., Vol. 7, No. 6, (December, 1998) pp. R15-R30
Electro-Active
Polymer (EAP) actuators for planetary applications, SPIE , Newport Beach,
CA, March 1-2, 1999 paper 3669-05
Electrical
Impedance of Ionic Polymeric Metal Composites, SPIE, ibid, paper 3669-09
Scaling
Laws of Microactuators and Potential Applications of
Electroactive Polymers in MEMS, SPIE, ibid, paper 3669-33
Flexible
low-mass devices and mechanisms actuated by Electroactive Polymers, SPIE,
ibid, 1999 paper 3669-38
Electro-statically
stricted polymers (ESSP), SPIE, ibid, paper
3669-41
"Ionic
polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) as biomimetic sensors, actuators and
artificial muscles - a review" Smart Mater. Struct.
7 No 6 (December 1998) R15-R30, PII: S0964-1726(1998) 98025-9
"Electroactive
Polymer (EAP) Actuating a Dust Wiper and Miniature Robotic Arm," SPIE
Newsletter, International Technical Group on Robotics and Machine Perception,
July 1999
"Challenges
to the transition of IPMC artificial muscle actuators to practical application"Document ID:
31295, MRS Symposium: FF: Electroactive Polymers, Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 1999 at
Boston, MS
"Electroactive
Polymers as Artificial Muscles - Capabilities, Potentials and Challenges"
Keynote Presentation at the Robotics 2000 and Space 2000. Albuquerque, NM, USA,
February 28 - March 2, 2000
"Electroactive
Polymers As Artificial Muscles - Capabilities, Potentials And Challenges"HANDBOOK ON
BIOMIMETICS, Yoshihito Osada (Chief Ed.), Section 11, in Chapter 8,
"Motion" paper #134, publisher: NTS Inc., Expected on Aug. 2000
"Electroactive
Polymers as Artificial Muscles Changing Robotics Paradigms," NSMMS
Symposium, San Diego, CA, 27 Feb. to 2 March 2000.
"Electroactive
Polymers (EAP) Characterization Methods," SPIE Smart Structures 2000,
EAPAD Conf. Newport Beach, CA, March 2000, paper 3987-4
"Challenges
to the transition of IPMC artificial muscle actuators to practical
application," SPIE Smart Structures 2000, EAPAD Conf. ibid, paper
3987-21
"Transition
of EAP material from novelty to practical applications - are we there
yet?," SPIE Smart Structures 2001, EAPAD Conf., Newport Beach, CA,
March 2000, paper 4329-02
"Characterization
of the Electromechanical Properties of EAP materials," SPIE Smart
Structures 2001, EAPAD Conf., paper 4329-43
"Virtual
reality robotic telesurgery simulations using MEMICA
haptic system," SPIE Smart Structures 2001, EAPAD Conf. ibid, paper
4329-47
"Androids:
application of EAP as artificial muscles to entertainment industry," SPIE
Smart Structures 2001, EAPAD Conf. ibid, paper 4329-74
"Electroactive
Polymers as Artificial Muscles - Reality and Challenges," 42nd AIAA
Structures, paper #2001-1492, Seattle WA, April 16-19 2001
"Nanotechnology
Using Electroactive Polymers as Artificial Muscles," MSTnews, International Newsletter on Microsystems and MEMS
(June 2001)
"Electro-active
polymers: current capabilities and challenges," Paper 4695-02,
Proceedings of the SPIE Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, EAPAD
Conference, San Diego, CA, March 17-19, 2002
"Measurements
and Macro Models of Ionomeric Polymer-Metal
Composites (IPMC)," Paper 4695-27, ibid
"Characterization
of the Electromechanical Properties of Ionomeric
Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC)," Paper 4695-33, ibid
"The
use of Piezoelectric Resonators for the Characterization of Mechanical
Properties of Polymers," Paper 4695-35, ibid
"Biologically
Inspired Intelligent Robotics," Paper 5051-02, Proceedings of the SPIE
Smart Structures Conference, San Diego, CA., Mar 2-6. 2003
"Numerical
modeling of single-layer electroactive polymer mirrors for space
applications," Paper 5051-45, ibid
Keynote
presentation at the 2003 ICMENS "Biologically
Inspired Intelligent Robots Using Artificial Muscles," Banff, Alberta,
Canada, July 20 to 23, 2003"
Y. Bar-Cohen, "Electroactive Polymers (EAP),” Electrochemistry Encyclopedia, Z. Nagy (Ed.), http://knowledge.electrochem.org/encycl/art-p02-elact-pol.htm hosted by Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. (Dec. 2004)
"Wirelessly
controllable inflated electroactive polymer (EAP) reflectors," Proceedings
of the 2005 SPIE Smart Structures Conference, San Diego, CA. March 7-10, 2005,
Paper 5759-52
"Biomimetics:
mimicking and inspired-by biology," Proceedings of the 2005 SPIE Smart
Structures Conference, San Diego, CA. March 7-10, 2005, Paper 5759-02
Publications in
Journals and Proceedings
Y. Bar-Cohen, “Humanoids and
the role of electroactive materials/mechanisms in advancing their capability”,
Invited Paper, Symposium H-3: Device development and integration technologies,
Symposium H - Electroactive Polymers and Shape Memory Polymers: Advances in
Materials and Devices, CIMTEC 2016 - 5th International Conference “Smart and
Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Systems” & 11th International
Conference “Medical Applications of Novel Biomaterials and Nanotechnology”,
Perugia, Italy June 5-9, 2016
LoMMAs Team
EAP support technology - Dr. Joycelyn Harrison and Dr. Joseph Smith, NASA LaRC
Self-assembled Monolayering - Prof. Rick Claus, Virginia Tech
Energy Science Laboratories, Inc., San Diego, CA. -
Dr. Timothy Knowles
Introduced
and supplied Na+/Pt type IPMC films - Prof.
Mohsen Shahinpoor, University of New Mexico, NM (part of LoMMAs
in FY'96 to FY'98)
Gel Polymers - Prof. Paul
Calvert, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Inkprinting - Dr. David Wallace, MicroFab
International Technology Cooperation
Dr.
Keisuke Oguro, Chief of Hydrogen, Energy Section,
Osaka National Research Institute, Osaka, Japan
Prof.
Satoshi Tadokoro, Dept. of Computer & Systems Engineering, Kobe University,
Japan
RELATED WEBSITES
Structures &
Materials Applications at JPL
EDUCATIONAL
OUTREACH WEBSITE
UCLA
- The EAP robotic arm with the 4-finger gripper (shown above) was constructed
by the graduate students: Cinkiat Abidin,
Brian Lucky, Harry Mashhoud and Marlene Turner, under
the guidance of Dr. Bar-Cohen. This robotic arm was constructed in FY'97 as the
students' research project meeting the academic requirements at the Integrated
Manufacturing Engineering (IME) Dept.
Last
updated - July 22, 2002