IPMC actuator-sensor based a biomimetic underwater microrobot with 8 Legs

Biomimetic microrobot with multi DOF that can walk smoothly in water or aqueous medium has urgently been demanded in the medical field and industry application. For this kind of microrobot, some characteristics are needed, such as simple and compact structure and efficient locomotion. Then special actuator materials are manufactured to realize these requests. One of this kind of materials is IPMC (ionic polymer metal composite). For IPMC actuator can generate large bending motions with very small dimensions, a number of studies have demonstrated propulsion of walking objects using it. And, in order to resolve the problems of asymmetry in former microrobot, we have developed a new underwater microrobot with 8 IPMC actuators as legs. Also, according to analysing walking and rotating process for two mechanisms and we choose a better one. Then some experiments are carried out to evaluate the walking and rotating speeds. From the results we can see that the microrobot can obtain a higher speed than the former one with 6 legs. In addition, we have carried out the experiments with IPMC sensor and analyzed the characteristics of IPMC sensor. Some experiments for different lengths and tip displacements of IPMC strips are carried to get the conclusion that the output voltage has a direct proportion relationship with the bending curve of IPMC strips.