Abstract:
Fabrication of a practical electroactive polymer-based actuator is one of significantly important topics in the material science field. It is expected that the electroactive polymer-based actuator motion is quite similar to the real muscle motion due to its innate softness. Therefore a number of scientists acknowledge that the electroactive polymer-based actuator could exhibit unprecedentedly fascinating performance as an electroactive actuator. IPMC (Ionic Polymer Metal Composite) is one of polymer-based actuators. The research’s main objective was to obtain, compute and analyze the actuator's dynamics and transfer functions for controlling purposes of the Selemion CMV-based IPMC actuators in humidity-controlled environments. This paper presents the DSP assisted Feedforward, Feedback and two-degree-of-freedom control applied to Selemion CMV – based IPMC actuator. Previously, the authors of this paper have noted that the dehydration treatment improves the electrical controllability of the bending curvature oscillations in Selemion CMV – based IPMC actuators. This was evident in the DSP assisted control systems. The bending curvature oscillations experiments were carried out during the winter season, where the relative humidity was 30% at a room temperature of 24°C. Prior to performing the experiments, actuator’s dynamics and transfer functions were obtained through a series of experiments and simulations. From the computed and derived transfer functions, the controllers were implemented. The three controllers performed quite well, with just slight deviations during the repeat experiments due to changes in electrical properties the actuators underwent.
