A Fractional Model for IPMC Actuators

The paper proposes a new model for IPMC actuators, based on non-integer order models. IPMCs are very interesting because of their capability to transform electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice-versa, making them particularly attractive for possible applications in different fields, such as robotics, aerospace, biomedicine, etc. A great interest has been devoted to non-integer, or fractional, order systems because they well model a lot of physical systems. An experimental setup has been realized to study the IPMCs behavior and an algorithm has been developed in Matlab Environment to identify a fractional order model of IPMC actuators.