Motion Simulation of Ionic Liquid Gel Soft Actuators Based on CPG Control.

Chenghong Zhang,An Ding,Zhipeng Wang,Yanmin Zhou,Shoulin Xu,Bin He

doi:10.1155/2019/8256723

Abstract

The ionic liquid gel (ILG), a new type of soft actuator material, is a mixture of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIMBF4), hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), diethoxyacetophenone (DEAP), and ZrO2 polymerized into a gel state under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The soft actuator structure consists of a layer of ionic liquid polymer gel sandwiched between two layers of activated carbon capped with gold foil. The volume of the cationic BMIM+ in the ionic liquid BMIMBF4 is much larger than that of the anionic BF4 −. When voltages are applied to both sides of the actuator, the anions and cations move toward the anode and cathode of the electrode, respectively, under the electric field. The volume of the ILG cathode side therefore expands, and the volume of the ILG anode side shrinks, hence bending the entire actuator toward the anode side. The Ogden model was selected as the hyperelastic constitutive model to study the mechanical properties of the ILG by nonlinear analysis. As the ILG is an ideal material for the preparation of a supercapacitor, the equivalent circuit of the ILG can be modeled by the supercapacitor theory to identify the transfer function of the soft actuator. The central pattern generator (CPG) control is widely used in the area of biology, and CPGs based on bioinspired control methods have attracted great attention from researchers worldwide. After the continuum soft actuator is discretized, the CPG-based bioinspired method can be used to control the soft robot drivers. According to the simulation analysis results, the soft actuator can be smooth enough to reach the specified location.

Highlights

Due to the large difference in structure between the soft robot and the traditional robot, the material used to manufacture a robot for traditional applications is quite different from the material used to manufacture a bionic robot
In the past few decades, new lightweight, high-performance materials have attracted the attention of soft robot researchers worldwide. e electroactive polymer (EAP) has been proven to be a proper smart material that meets the requirements of soft robot design. e application of EAP materials has become a popular topic this year
Because ionic liquid gels (ILGs) offer chemical stability, thermal stability, and simple ion transport, they are suitable for the production of soft robot actuators [6,7,8]

Summary

Introduction

Due to the large difference in structure between the soft robot and the traditional robot, the material used to manufacture a robot for traditional applications is quite different from the material used to manufacture a bionic robot. In the past few decades, new lightweight, high-performance materials have attracted the attention of soft robot researchers worldwide. Noncovalent interactions allow supramolecular gel materials to have a very high mechanical strength and excellent self-healing ability It has been demonstrated and well documented that ZrO2 can improve the electrochemical behavior of ionic liquids and the mechanical strength of ionic polymers in supramolecular nanocomposites [9]. E activated carbon layer is used to adsorb the anions and cations in the ionic liquid polymer gel, the gold foil layer is used as the electrode, and a wire is connected on the outside of the gold foil to the power source

Ionic Liquid Gel

Hyperelastic

Simulation Analysis