Abstract
This paper presents low-profile torsional actuators applicable for mesoscale and microscalerobots. The primary actuator material is thermally activated Ni–Ti shape memory alloy(SMA), which exhibits remarkably high torque density. Despite the advantages of SMAs foractuator applications—high strain, silent operation, and mechanical simplicity—theresponse time and energy efficiency limit overall performance. As an alternative to SMAwires, thin SMA sheets are used to fabricate effective yet compact torsional actuators. Also,instead of using conventional Joule heating, an external Ni–Cr heating element isutilized to focus heat on the regions of highest required strain. Various designparameters and fabrication variants are described and experimentally explored inactuator prototypes. Controlled current profiles and discrete heating produces a20% faster responsetime with 40% less power consumption as compared to Joule heating in a low-profile (sub-millimeter) torsional actuatorcapable of 180° motion.
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