Fabrication and Characterization of IPMC Actuator for Underwater Micro Robot Propulsor

Abstract

Abstract. The usage of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) actuator as the propulsor for underwater robot has been worked out by many scientists and researchers. IPMC actuator had been selected due to its advantages such as low energy consumption, low operation noise and ability to work underwater. This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of the IPMC actuator. The IPMC actuator samples had been fabricated using electroless plating for three different thickness and lengths. The characterization was conducted to determine the influence of the thickness, length, input frequency, drive voltage and orientation angle on the tip force and output frequency. The results show that IPMC thickness has significant influence on the tip force generation and lower input frequency would results wider displacement. The recorded results are essential as future reference in developing the propulsor for the underwater robot. Besides, IPMC actuator consumes low energy between 1V and 3V, depend of type of the task [7]. IPMC actuator has few other advantages such as low noise operation and large bending strain [8]. However, this actuator has constraints that should be considered in order to develop the underwater Introduction

Feasibility Study on IPMC Actuated Contractile Water Jet Thruster Body Contraction

“…The IPMC actuators were fixed to the gold plated electrodes and its tip was pasted on the PE film ( Figure 1). The gold plated electrodes were connected to a power supply (GW Instek PSM-3004) and the drive voltage was fixed at 4 V to ensure an optimum underwater IPMC actuation [5]. The contraction frequency, f c was determined by setting the IPMC actuation cycle time, T a in Arduino software version 1.0.5.…”