WorldWide Electroactive Polymer Actuators* Webhub
* Artificial Muscles
This homepage provides links to various electroactive polymer (EAP) websites worldwide and it is maintained by the JPL's NDEAA Technologies Lab. For background information please see a lecture on video entitled "Electroactive Polymers as Artificial Muscles" or see the following article [Keynote Presentation at the Robotics 2000 and Space 2000, NM, USA] entitled: "EAP as Artificial Muscles - Capabilities, Potentials and Challenges". The field of EAP is part of the broader field of biomimetics
Note: The graphics on this
website is clickable. The graphics of the two EAP platforms are linked to
videoes that require QuickTime.
View
video reviewing the field of EAP 
In 1999, Dr. Bar-Cohen posed
a challenge to the worldwide research and engineering community to develop a
robotic arm that is actuated by artificial muscles to win an armwrestling
match against a human opponent. The first Armwrestling Match between EAP
actuated Robot and Human (AMERAH) was held on March 7, 2005 as part of the 2005
SPIE Annual International EAPAD
(EAP Actuators & Devices) Conference. This match was organized with
assistance from the United
States ArmSports who provided the table for the match. There were three
participating organizations including Environmental Robots Incorporated
(ERI),
Some of the applications that are being considered include Haptic/Tactile Interfaces and particularly Active Braille Display. Another development is the first commercial product and it is a fish robot, and it was announced by EAMEX, Japan, at the SPIE's EAPAD 2003 Conference.
WW-EAP INFORMATION AND ARCHIEVE
· Books
that cover the subject of EAP
· EAP
related Conferences and Symposia
· Companies
that produce EAP materials, and actuators, and/or provide processes
· Biomimetics:
Biologically-Inspired Technologies
· Research
opportunities (STTR, MURI, etc.)
· Available
positions (Postdoc, etc.)
· How to make
Electroactive Polymer Actuators (IPMC, etc.)
· WW-EAP
Artificial Muscles Significant Events
· EAP
in Action video clippings
Call for input to the 21th
issue of the WW-EAP
Newsletter
PROPERTIES OF BIOLOGICAL AND ARTIFICIAL
MUSCLES/EAP
What are
muscles? - "Skeletal
Muscle is a Biological Example of a Linear Electro-Active Actuator,"
Dr. Richard L. Lieber, UCSD (SPIE paper 3669-03)
What are the
names of human muscles? - Atlas
of the Body The Muscles - Side View
A brief history
of muscle research - Anthony
N. Martonosi, "Animal electricity, Ca2+ and muscle contraction," Acta
Biochimica Polonica, Vol. 47 No. 3 (2000)
How is muscles
compared with conductive polymer EAP? - MIT's
comparison table
How are EAP
compared with other electroactive materials? - SRI
International comparison tables/charts.
These tables and charts are based on preliminary data. We would like to
encourage the research community to challenge the data and help us make it as
accurate as possible.
Comparing the properties of EAP materials - Review article by J. Madden, et al, Materials Today, April 2007
Properties of Biological and Artificial Muscles/EAP - Measured EAP properties: the University of British Columbia's web
database for viewing, comparing and submitting EAP properties.
ORGANIZATIONS WORKING WITH EAP
Intelligent Polymer Research
Institute, U. of Wollongong
Brazil
Laboratorio de Polimeros Condutores e
Reciclagem, Instituto de Quimica, Campinas, SP
Conducting Polymer Devices Group,
University of British Columbia
Smart and Adaptive Polymers Lab,
University of Toronto
Estonia
Intelligent Materials and Systems Laboratory, University of Tartu
Conductive Polymers -- Centro
Polymer Science & Engineering, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Plastic and Rubber Engineering, Materials and
Processes, RAFAEL,
Ion Exchange
Memberances (IPMC), Asahi Glass
Biomimetic Materials
Group, National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research, Tsukuba
EAMEX Corporation, Ikeda
Laboratory:1-8-31 Midorigaoka, Ikeda city,
Osaka National Research Institute,
Dept. of Computer & Systems
Engineering,
Div. of Biological Sciences,
Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University
Hane Lab, Department of
Mechatronics and Precision Engineering, Tohoku University, Graduate school of
Engineering, Sendai,
EAP nonionic polymer gel actuators,
Department of Materials Chemistry, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology,
Kyushu Institute of Technology,
Fokuoka
Gunma
Toshio Nippon Densan Corp., Shiga
Olymous Optical Co.
Canon K.K.
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Dankook University, Seoul
Dept. of Biomedical
Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul
Biomimetics
Laboratory, The
Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland
European Network of
artificial muscle (ESNAM)
Risoe
National Laboratory, Condensed Matter Physics and Chemistry Department,
Roskilde
Rapra Publications,
Handbook of Conducting Polymers
Department of Cardiac
Surgery, Timone Hospital Marseille
l'Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie
Industrielles de la Ville de Paris
Laboratoire d'Automatique, Besançon
Reseau Francais de Mecanosynthese
Institut Curie - PARIS CEDEX 05, France, in collaboration with PG de
Gennes
Department of Physics,
University of Bayreuth, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth
Institute for Electromechanical
Design, Darmstadt University of Technology
Hungary
Magnetic
Field Sensitive Polymer Gels, Dept. of Physical Chemistry, Technical University
of Budapest
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica
Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania
Dept. of Computers Science,
Centro
""E. Piaggio" Faculty of Engineering, University of Pisa
University
of the Basque Country, Faculty of Chemistry, San Sebastian
Mobile Manipulators
Group, Carlos III University of Madrid
Lab. of Applied Physics, IFM,
Linköpings universitet, Linköping
Switzerland
Swiss
Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Dübendorf
Optotune,
Ueberlandstrasse, Dübendorf
Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Turkey
Department of Electrical and
Electronics Eng. Dokuz Eylul University, Ýzmir
Lab
of Molecular Biophysics,
Gel Polymers University of
Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Electroactive
Polymers (EAP), NDEAA Lab, Advanced Technologies Group, JPL, Pasadena, CA
Intelligent Mechanisms Group, NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
SRI International,
Advanced Technology Division, Menlo Park, CA
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Department of Mechanical
Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA
Department
of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences, Center of Excellence for
Advanced Materials, University of California, San Diego
EAP Reports, Business
Communications Company Inc., Connecticut
Institute of Materials Science and
Chemical Engineering Depts., University of Connecticut
Laboratory for Active Materials
and Biomimetics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
MIT, Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, Ma
MIT, Bioinstruments,
Conducting Polymer Devices and Materials, Cambridge, Ma
Michigan State University -
"The Nanotube Site"
Michigan State University -
Smart Microsystems Laboratory (SML)
Montana
State University, Dept. of Physics, College of Letters and Science, Montana
State University, Bozeman, MT
Allied
Signal, Morristown, NJ
Dept.
of Mechanics and Materials Science,
(AMRI)
Artificial Muscle Research Institute,
Environmental Robots Inc.,
Santa
Fe Science and Technology,
Smart
Materials & Structures at Sandia, Sandia National Laboratories,
North Carolina
Indiana University
of Pennsylvania
Penn State
University, Materials Research Lab, College Station, PA
Penn State College of
Medicine
Compliant
Structures Laboratory, ME Dept., SD
UTD NanoTech
Institute, University of Texas at Dallas
Composites &
Polymers Branch,
Fiber & Electro-Optics
Research Center (FEORC), Virginia Tech
Center for Intelligent Material
Systems and Structures, Virginia Tech
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Biological muscles
Dept.
of Orhopedics and Bioengineering, University of California, V.A. Medical
Center, San Diego, CA
Department of Cardiac
Surgery, Timone Hospital Marseille, France
EAP materials Suppliers
Companies
that produce EAP materials, and actuators, and/or provide processes
Polymer MEMS
The following are institutes that are exploring the use
of polymers to produce micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS)
Micro Actuators, Sensors, and Systems Group,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Technical Journal that is
recommended for EAP R&D publications:
Journal Materials Science & Engineering C, whose
Editors are: P. Calvert, D. De Rossi, T. Tateishi (Elsevier). Mailing address
is: Elsevier Science,
Information, Publications and
Newsletters
Biomaterials
Network - biomat.net
Rapra Publications,
"Handbook of Conducting Polymers"
Terminology
EAP
- general term describing polymers that respond to electrical stimulation
Electronic
EAP - polymer that change shape or dimensions due to migration of
electrons in response to electric field (usually dry)
Ionic EAP - polymer that change shape or
dimensions due to migration of ions in response to electric field (usually wet
and contains electrolyte)
Electrostriction
- the none linear reaction of ferroelectric EAP (relating strain to
E2)
For more information you can
contact:
Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), MS 67-119,
Phone: 818-354-2610, Fax:
818-393-2879, e-mail: yosi@jpl.nasa.gov
Last updated – July 14, 2009