Electroactive Polymers for Robotic Applications (eBook)

Dr Kwang Kim is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Active Materials and Processing Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He graduated in 1987 from Yonsei University, Korea, and received his MS and PhD from Arizona State University in 1989 and 1992, respectively. He later completed his postdoctoral study at the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) at the University of Maryland-College Park (1993-1995). His industrial experience includes time as a Senior Research Engineer at Thermal Electric Devices, Inc. (1995-1997), and as the Chief Scientist at Environmental Robots, Inc. (1997-2001), Albuquerque NM. He has published over 130 technical papers and holds 2 patents. His research and teaching interests are broad-based, but mainly relate to active materials/sensors, thermal science/energy systems, and nanotechnology. Dr Satoshi Tadokoro is President of the International Rescue System Institute, in Kobe, Japan. He is also a Professor in the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering at Kobe University, where he has been employed for over twenty years. He teaches about actuator theory, mechatronics and intelligent machine theory. Dr Tadokoro gained his MS and his PhD in Engineering from the University of Tokyo. His research interests include rescue robots, and robotics and actuators.

Preface 5
Contents 6
List of Contributors 8
1 Active Polymers: An Overview 10
2 Dielectric Elastomers for Artificial Muscles 46
3 Robotic Applications of Artificial Muscle Actuators 58
4 Ferroelectric Polymers for Electromechanical Functionality 100
5 Polypyrrole Actuators: Properties and Initial Applications 130
6 Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite as a New Actuator and Transducer Material 162
7 Biomimetic Soft Robots Using IPMC 174
8 Robotic Application of IPMC Actuators with Redoping Capability 208
9 Applications of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites: Multiple- DOF Devices Using Soft Actuators and Sensors 235
10 Dynamic Modeling of Segmented IPMC Actuator 271
Index 286