Challenges and Perspectives in Control of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) Actuators: A Survey

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are electroactive polymers expected to be used as soft actuators in various practical areas like robotics, biomedicine and micro manipulation systems. Though IPMC actuators have many advantages (lightweight, noiseless operation, low operating voltage, possibility of miniaturization), some of their inherent properties (back-relaxation, hysteresis, high sensitivity to ambient conditions, aging) make their precise and reliable control a challenging task. This paper presents a survey of control methods for IPMC actuators. A systematic overview of the techniques, addressing the main challenges in IPMC control, is provided.