Abstract
This paper presents the concept, design, and characterization of a new type of integrated device with a hybrid structure. The proposed device is hybridized with an electrothermal actuator and a bending sensor with temperature-compensating ability, which can serve as a self-sensing system. The sensor displays a parallel change in the electrical resistance upon the temperature alteration, resulting enables a cancellation of cross talk. The actuator exhibits a visible maximum strain of 1.2% at an electric power intensity of around 1.05 mW/mm3, and the bending sensor can display the curvature without the need for an external monitoring system such as a laser displacement meter. The traceability of the motion is represented well while power is supplied, but a slight delay occurs when the power is switched off, this being due to the difference in thermal conductivity between the composite of the actuator and the sensor. This proposed hybrid device realizes a simple self-sensing operation using a simple power supply and monitoring reading lines. It offers ease of fabrication and promising practical applications in remote sensing/operating devices.
Highlights
We propose an integrated device with a hybrid structure of an electrothermal actuator and a bending sensor with temperature-compensating ability, which can serve as a self-sensing system
Details of the fabrication process of the Multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs)/PDMS composite and PDMS bimorph actuators are shown in Fig. S1
The gauge factor (GF) is a common index for explaining the sensitivity of electrical shift to mechanical deformation and was calculated as approximately 9.43 from the tensile strain converted from the curvature
Summary
Electroactive polymers (EAPs) have great potential as soft actuators in applications such as soft robotics, artificial muscles, switches, microsensors, and biomimetic devices. Numerous studies have been conducted and applications realized based on the facts that EAPs (i) provide large-strain polymorphic actuation when driven by an electric field or current, (ii) have the advantages of being cheap, lightweight, and easy to control and permitting facile fabrication, and (iii) can be used in air.. Despite the fact that actuators can perform biomimetically agile or complex actions, the actuation motion itself is measured by traditional cameras, laser displacement sensors, laser-sight infrared thermometers, and infrared thermal imagers.12–18 These devices have the lack of a feedback system for their positions, motions, and sensory of temperature compensation. Amjadi and Sitti demonstrated multi-responsive actuators comprising normal copy paper and polypropylene film with a sensing function.21 They realized independent electrothermal simulation and real-time displacement sensors by hybridizing graphite microparticles and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and they used a hybrid film to adjust the nearly-zero thermal coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the piezoresistive sensor because of the opposite change in the electrical resistance upon the temperature alteration and bending of the actuator. The proposed hybrid device will be helpful for remote sensing/operating devices
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