In recent years, polymer fiber actuators obtained by twisting polymer fibers have attracted much attention. These actuators actuate due to the reversible axial thermal contraction and radial thermal expansion of untwisted fibers. In this study, thermal contraction of the two polyamides, PA6 and PA610, fibers were investigated. The fiber length of both fibers changed reversibly in response to temperature change, but there was no initial load dependence on the amount of contraction. These results indicate that this thermal contraction is not due to the entropic elasticity effect seen in rubber. In addition, the thermal contraction was larger for PA610, which has a larger thermal expansion coefficient in the amorphous state. This suggests that the thermal expansion of the amorphous state was converted by its fiber structure into expansion in the diameter direction and contraction in the fiber axial direction [Kimura et al., Sens. Actuators B Chem., 2021].
Fishing-line artificial muscles can exhibit various motions. Twisted Polymer Fiber (TPF) actuators, which are a class of fishing-line artificial muscle actuators, generate torsional motion by applying heat. In general, untwisted fiber contracts by heating. However, measuring the blocking thermal tensile force of a TPF, we have discovered that the tensile force decreased and fluctuated depending on the initial number of twists in the TPF. This suggests that a TPF expands depending on the initial number of twists. Furthermore, the tensile force does not decrease monotonically but fluctuates during heating.
A fishing-line artificial muscle actuator is typically tested under a constant weight load. This paper reports a new hysteresis phenomenon discovered by changing both load weight and temperature applied to a fishing-line artificial muscle actuator. Obviously the equilibrium position of an actuator changes by load weight. Interestingly, the equilibrium position also largely changes when the actuator is firstly heated and cooled just after exchanging the load weight. In this paper we call this phenomenon as temperature-dependent hysteresis. We have observed that the magnitude of the temperature-dependent hysteresis in the experiment reached the same level as the thermal contraction and was not negligible.
KEYWORDS: Actuators, Polymers, Artificial muscles, Polymeric actuators, System identification, Control systems, Annealing, Control systems design, Modeling
This paper focuses on the torsional motion of a torsional type fishing-line artificial muscle actuator, so to speak, Twisted Polymer Fiber (TPF) actuator. TPFs are expected as limited rotation motors or limited angle motors for mechatronic applications. Aiming to construct a gray-box model for TPF actuators, this paper derives the first-order transfer function as the model from the applied electrical power to the generated torque of an actuator. The relation from the temperature to the generated torsional torque is simply assumed as a linear function of which coefficient is the torsional rigidity. In the experiment, the validity of the obtained model is evaluated, and then the blocked torque of the TPF actuator is controlled.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.