2014
EAP-in-Action – SPIE’s EAPAD Conf.
Estonia
Bio-inspired
autonomous robot actuated by ionic EAPs.
Presenters on-site: Indrek Must*, Friedrich Kaasik
* indrekm@ut.ee, Intelligent Materials and Systems Lab, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Nooruse 1, Tartu, 50411, Estonia
An autonomous crawling microrobot with locomotion inspired by an inchworm and propelled by ionic liquid-based bending EAPs is presented. This microprocessor-controlled robot is powered by an on-board lithium battery and is able to move in ambient air on a smooth surface. The construction takes advantage of the unique properties of soft iEAP technology.
Germany
DEA
enhanced PC-mouse for improving human machine interaction.
Henry Haus, Holger Mößinger, and Helmut F. Schlaak
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institute of Electromechanical Design, Darmstadt, Germany
The flexibility of rubber-like dielectric elastomer actuators allows adjusting the shape of tactile interfaces to fit onto arbitrary surfaces. These flexibility offers the opportunity to provide tactile stimulus not only the fingertips but also to other parts of the human body, using greater parts of the human skin to transmit information. A fully functional PC-mouse, enhanced with DEA technology, providing tactile feedback into the palm of the users hand, will be demonstrated. The audience may try out the tactile feedback while interacting with specially designed demo software on a PC, giving everyone the opportunity to experience the advantages of flexible DE-actuators for human machine interaction.
Japan
Smart Gel Robotics with
Flexible & Transparent Shape Memory Gel (FT-SMG)
Jin Gong, Hidemitsu Furukawa
Soft and Wet Matter Engineering Laboratory (SWEL), Yamagata University
(Japan)
Contact: Jin Gong
<jingong@yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp>
A smart varifocal lens is designed with flexible & transparent shape
memory gel (FT-SMG), which freely adjusts the focal length based on simple
mechanism of changing water pressure inside. Except for a soft eye of a robot, we have also developed other FT-SMG gel
for robots including soft touch paper and soft skin finger.
New
Zealand
Wearable and
portable energy harvesters and soft sensor technologies
Presenters: Iain Anderson1, 2, Thomas McKay1, Daniel Xu1, Andrew Lo1, Tony Tse1,
Todd Gisby2
Contact:
Iain A. Anderson, Biomimetics Lab, i.anderson@auckland.ac.nz, www.abi.auckland.ac.nz/biomimetics
and
Stretchsense Ltd., iain@stretchsense.co.nz, www.stretchsense.com
The Biomimetics Lab and
the new spinout StretchSense Ltd. will demonstrate advances leading to an exciting future of wearable and
portable energy harvesters and soft sensor technologies
that include a wireless glove.
(1) Getting low voltage power from a dielectric
elastomer generator (DEG) is now possible. The developed electronics is
specifically designed for small portable DEGs that are capable of efficiently
transforming high voltage to low voltage.
(3) Measuring human body motion can provide
valuable feedback for sports, medical, video and game applications. The next
generation of soft sensor technologies, including a wireless glove, will be
presented.
United Kingdom
DEA-Based
Whisker for Robotics
Tareq Assaf, Jonathan Rossiter, Andrew Conn, Martin
Pearson, Peter Walters Bristol Robotics
Lab. (United Kingdom)
DEA-based whisker module will be presented showing the results of the efforts
to scale and overcome critical issues for the exploitation of this artificial
muscle technology in robotics, in particular as actuator to drive active
tactile sensing. The modularity, dimensions, low weight and soft features make
of this technology ideal for such application with relatively easy access to 2
Degrees of freedom and achieving both actuator and sensor capabilities. During
the demonstration the prototypes will be shown and actuated together with the
new upcoming release that contains improvements both on the design and
performance point of view.
Acknowledgement: The DEA-based whisker module has been developed under the
BELLA Project funded by EPSRC under grant EP/I032533/1
USA
University of Texas at Dallas
Schematic of
torsional and tensile muscles produced from carbon-based materials
Carter S. Haines, Marcio D. Lima, Ray H. Baughman, Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas
Contact: Carter Haines <pseudonomen137@gmail.com>, (214) 562-1661
Carbon-based
artificial muscles have been
designed to provide fast torsional and tensile actuation. In tension, these muscles
can provide in excess of 20% stroke without hysteresis when powered
electrically or by using hot liquids such as water. More than a million cycles
of reversible tensile actuation have been performed without a significant loss
of performance. Torsional muscles that can move heavy loads and operate from
ambient temperature gradients have also been shown. Such muscles can be woven
into braids and fabrics to produce smart textiles and actuating fabric.
Demonstrations include torsional and tensile muscles exhibiting large stroke
and giant force performance.
ViviTouch
Dirk Schapeler, ViviTouch, A Bayer Brand
Contact: Dirk Schapeler <dschapeler@vivitouch.com>
An EAP stacked actuator will be demonstrated that is smaller than a thumb tack that is easily integrated as wearable devices and unique spaces. It can be used as a bracelet or line clothing, in trigger buttons or thumb sticks, in a game controller for direct contact with skin as well as individually controlled haptic feedback zones. The device provides high definition feel with a broad spectrum of haptic effects having silent operation and without any audible buzzer.
Ras Labs
Synthetic MuscleTM: EAP-based materials and
actuators
Contact: Lenore Rasmussen
and Eric Sandberg, (United States)
The most recently enhanced EAP material
called Synthetic Muscle TM will be demonstrated contracting and expanding. The
material can be activated in a controlled zone (the photos show expansion in
the middle of the film) offering the potential of haptic interfacing with
programmable reasons.