Brief Description

Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite As Sensor And Actuator: Application In Motion Control (ISAMCO) project aims at fabricating an innovative material, that is Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC), in order to develop prototypes of an artificial muscle and of a motion sensor. To reach the aforesaid objectives, a series of theoretical researches and experimental analysis will be conducted by all Participants. IPMCs bend, if a voltage is applied across their thickness and, vice versa, they generate a voltage signal if mechanically deformed, quasi-statically or dynamically. It is quite evident the possibility to overwork these properties to build both motion actuators and sensors. This kind of materials has a big potentiality in several application fields, such as robotics, biomedical, aerospace, safety and surveillance. Nevertheless, at the moment those applications are limited by the poor knowledge of the mechanisms which are involved in the actuation and sensing operative modes, the lack of models able to fully describe the material behaviour. Comparing this type of materials with other existing ones, such as Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) or Piezo Electric Materials (PZT), IPMCs are lighter, can be activated by low voltage (few volts compared to hundreds of volts of PZT), have a good low frequency response (up to a minimum of hundreds of mHz) and can be produced without using toxic elements, such as Ni, Cd, Pb.