Modeling and Study of Actuation of IPMC from the viewpoint of Small-Scale Manipulator Development

Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) is consid-ered as an Electro-Active Polymer (EAP) with high application potential in the field of soft and small-scale manipulator and robotics. It responds to external electric voltage by bending in a specific direction. This bending is caused due to the migration of movable ions present within the IPMC in response to the electric voltage applied. In this article, a suitable transfer function (TF) between bending moment produced in the IPMC and applied voltage (to the IPMC) has been derived using a Resistance-Capacitance-Warburg element (RCW)-based equivalent circuit of IPMC. Further, rigorous experiments have been carried out to observe the voltage-displacement characteristics for an IPMC strip by applying diverse voltage signals. Excitation voltages ranged from 1 - 5V. The forward relationship between voltage and bending moment of IPMC is expected to be very useful for developing highly dexterous soft and small-scale robots and manipulators.