A Multi-DOF ER Microactuator System Using Alternating-Pressure Source
This paper proposed and developed a multi-degrees-offreedom (DOF) ER microactuator system using an alternatingpressure source,which is high power density and space-saving for in-pipe working micromachines,medical micro robots,and so on.An ER microactuator consists of an ER microvalve and a fluid power microactuator.The ER microvalve controls the electrorheological fluid (ERF) flow through its apparent viscosity change due to the applied electric field.ER microactuators are suitable for above-mentioned micromachines,however,a conventional ER microactuator needs two pipes for supply and drain having rather large diameter for higher base viscosity of ERFs.The proposed system is composed of ER microactuators and an alternating-pressure source using two working fluids: ERF and water.In this system,ERF exists only in the actuators; the working fluid in the pressure source and the piping is low viscosity fluid such as water and the diameter of the pipes can be smaller.Also,the pipe connecting the pressure source and an actuator is only one.So the space for piping is less than conventional ER microactuator systems,which is suitable for multi-DOF systems.In this paper,for verification of the working principle of the proposed system,we fabricated a large model of the system that consists of an ER bimorph actuator with 13×10×33 mm3 in size and an alternating-pressure source using a voice coil motor.Through experiments,we confirmed the tip displacement of 17 mm for 16 mm long movable part of the actuator.Then,we fabricated a gripper using two ER bimorph actuators and confirmed the independent and multi-DOF motion.
Microactuator Electro-rheological fluid (ERF) Alternating-pressure source Multi-DOF
Kazuhiro Yoshida Tomoya Miyoshi Sang In Eom Shinichi Yokota
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology,R2-42,4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midor Graduate School, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
国际会议
天津
英文
1-5
2012-10-16（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）