Non-uniform deformation and curvature identification of ionic polymer metal composite actuators

Abstract

Modeling and identification of dynamic behavior of ionic polymer metal composites as a widely used smart material is an inevitable work. In this article, unlike other conventional methods that modeled the tip displacement or uniform deformation of the ionic polymer metal composite, we have modeled the nonuniform deformation of the ionic polymer metal composite actuator. Final target of this method is estimation and prediction of a multi-criteria dynamic mathematical model. This dynamic mathematical model has been defined in such a way that all geometrical characteristics, shape, and curvature of it are consistent with the ionic polymer metal composite characteristics in all the time. This model can be useful to extract and predict many geometrical and even physical characteristics of the ionic polymer metal composite such as torque due to the ionic polymer metal composite weight, curvature, and bending angle. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is capable to identify and predict the ionic polymer metal composite nonuniform deformation and curvature trajectory accurately even in a large deformation situation.