Research Trends of Soft Actuators based on Electroactive Polymers and Conducting Polymers

India-Japan Expert Group Meeting on Biomolecular Electronics & Organic Nanotechnology for Environment Preservation

物理学;生物科学;生态环境科学

Kaneto, K.^1

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, 5-16-1, Ohmiya, Asahi-ku, Osaka

535-8585, Japan^1

关键词: Artificial muscle;    Driving voltages;    Electrical motors;    Electroactive polymers;    Human like robots;    Reducing activity;    Research activities;    Training effects;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/704/1/012004/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/704/1/012004

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Artificial muscles (or soft actuators) based on electroactive polymers (EAPs) are attractive power sources to drive human-like robots in place of electrical motor, because they are quiet, powerful, light weight and compact. Among EAPs for soft actuators, conducting polymers are superior in strain, stress, deformation form and driving voltage compared with the other EAPs. In this paper, the research trends of EAPs and conducting polymers are reviewed by retrieval of the papers and patents. The research activity of EAP actuators showed the maximum around 2010 and somehow declining now days. The reasons for the reducing activity are found to be partly due to problems of conducting polymer actuators for the practical application. The unique characteristics of conducting polymer actuators are mentioned in terms of the basic mechanisms of actuation, creeping, training effect and shape retention under high tensile loads. The issues and limitation of conducting polymer soft actuators are discussed.