An embedded system to control conducting interpenetrating polymer networks actuators

In this work, we present an electronic board used for conducting Interpenetrating Polymer Networks (IPNs) which can be used as sensors and/or actuators. The first prototype allows the user to generate custom signals for actuation purposes (steps, sine, triangle…). It can also record the deformations applied to the device by reading the voltage between the two electrodes. However, the voltage required for actuation is of a few volts while the measured voltages during sensing is only of a few hundreds of microvolts. It is thus necessary to magnify the measured voltage with signal processing techniques. The paper proposes an equivalent model of IPN actuator in the range of [1 Hz–1 kHz], a robust model will allow to drive the actuator thanks to the electric indicators (voltage and current) measured between the electrodes of actuator.