In nature, there are teams of actuator-like limbs that move together, such as cilia. By producing a traveling wave effect, they can transport items, generate flow, and act as sensors. It would be ideal for researchers to be able to reproduce something similar to create more biomimetic systems. Presented is an Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) array that has the ability to work as a team of actuators moving in a traveling wave or a team of sensors, being able to give a reading of the flow across the surface of the array. In this demo an IPMC array that works as an actuator and sensor will be presented.
Sarah Trabia, Robert Hunt , Taeseon Hwang, Qi Shen, Zachary Frank, Justin Neubauer, Zakai Olsen, Tyler Stalbaum, Blake Naccarato, Kwang Kim, Active Materials and Smart Living Lab., Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas (USA)