Frequency response of anisotropic ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) transducers

Abstract

The emergence of soft polymer actuators brings a great deal of excitement in the robotics and biomedical engineering community because of the possibilities to easily mimic the motion of living organisms and ability to manipulate living tissue and cells without damaging it. Some of the applications of soft polymer actuators, such as micropumps, require them to operate at high frequency and large displacement, which usually achieved near resonance. It would be beneficial for the designer, if he could easily tailor the frequency response and the resonance frequency to suit the operating conditions. We propose such an effective method of modification of the frequency response of ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators by introducing an anisotropic roughness on their surface.