TY - GEN
T1 - Bioinspired control of electro-active polymers for next generation soft robots
AU - Wilson, Emma
AU - Anderson, Sean R.
AU - Assaf, Tareq
AU - Pearson, Martin J.
AU - Walters, Peter
AU - Prescott, Tony J.
AU - Melhuish, Chris
AU - Rossiter, Jonathan
AU - Pipe, Tony
AU - Dean, Paul
AU - Porrill, John
PY - 2012/12/31
Y1 - 2012/12/31
N2 - The emerging field of soft robotics offers the prospect of replacing existing hard actuator technologies with new soft-smart materials [7]. Such materials have the potential to form a key component of safer, more compliant and light-weight robots. Soft robots constructed from these advanced materials could be used in a progressively wide range of applications, especially those involving interactions between robots and people in unstructured environments such as homes, hospitals and schools. Electroactive polymer (EAP) technologies such as dielectric elastomer (DEA) actuators and ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are a class of smart materials that are of particular interest for use in soft robotics [2]. However, despite their great potential, EAP devices present a number of challenges for control. They are, for example, non-linear in behaviour, prone to degradation over time, and fabricated with wide tolerances. In this paper we describe a project that aims to develop novel bioinspired control strategies for EAPs addressing these key challenges.
AB - The emerging field of soft robotics offers the prospect of replacing existing hard actuator technologies with new soft-smart materials [7]. Such materials have the potential to form a key component of safer, more compliant and light-weight robots. Soft robots constructed from these advanced materials could be used in a progressively wide range of applications, especially those involving interactions between robots and people in unstructured environments such as homes, hospitals and schools. Electroactive polymer (EAP) technologies such as dielectric elastomer (DEA) actuators and ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are a class of smart materials that are of particular interest for use in soft robotics [2]. However, despite their great potential, EAP devices present a number of challenges for control. They are, for example, non-linear in behaviour, prone to degradation over time, and fabricated with wide tolerances. In this paper we describe a project that aims to develop novel bioinspired control strategies for EAPs addressing these key challenges.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84865024701&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_42
DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-32527-4_42
M3 - Chapter in a published conference proceeding
AN - SCOPUS:84865024701
SN - 9783642325267
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 424
EP - 425
BT - Advances in Autonomous Robotics - Joint Proceedings of the 13th Annual TAROS Conference and the 15th Annual FIRA RoboWorld Congress
T2 - Joint of the 13th Annual Conference on Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2012 and the 15th Annual FIRA RoboWorld Congress
Y2 - 20 August 2012 through 23 August 2012
ER -