Modeling simulation and design of Ionic Polymer Metal Composite soft actuators

Thanks to the advancements in chemistry and material sciences, soft actuators today are in a position to provide a simple and maintenance free solutions to the use of electromechanical actuators used mainly in biomedical engineering. Due to the ability to work in free air, ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) play a leading role being a suitable material for soft actuators. The design and development of its commercial applications can be accelerated if proper modeling, simulation and design procedures are formulated. This paper uses the principle of thermal expansion of a bimetallic strip to model the large deflections of the bending action of IPMC. Finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate the designs of soft actuators made of IPMC and the design procedures, common to many soft actuators are also formulated.