Electro-mechanical modelling and identification of electroactive polymer actuators as smart robotic manipulators

Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators, also known as artificial muscles, have remarkable properties such as low energy consumption, low weight, low actuation foot-print, compliance and bio-compatibility. Several methodologies have been proposed to model and analyse their quasi-static bending behaviour with negligible attention paid to their dynamic behaviour. We, therefore, report on an enhanced methodology to model their highly non-linear bending behaviour by treating them as smart and soft robotic manipulators. The methodology consists of an inverse kinematic model and a dynamic model. The proposed methodology accurately estimates the EAP actuator’s whole shape deflection using optimization-based inverse kinematic solutions integrated with an electro-mechanical dynamic model. The experimental and numerical results are presented to show the effectiveness of the soft robotic manipulator model in estimating the highly non-linear bending behaviour of the polypyrrole electroactive polymer (PPy-EAP) actuators. The proposed methodology can easily be extended to other bending type actuators and active smart manipulators.