Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
H
G
C
F
E
B
I
J
D
A
FIGURE 5.9
Robotic swimming structure (top) and swimmer with muscle undulation fre-
quency of 3 Hz (bottom). The scale shown is in centimeters.
of shapes and motions of such machines, using PAMPS gel and its copolymer gel.
However, Osada and coworkers (1992) should be given credit for the first crawling
robot made with electroactive PAMPS gel.
In her dissertation, Otake described the mechanisms using the PAMPS gel, or
“gel robots,” and how to control them. Her dissertation includes:
a mathematical model of the gel to be applied for design and control of
distributed mechanisms
gel robot manufacturing and their driving systems
control of gel robots for dynamic deformations
The results are demonstrated for beam-shaped gels curling around an object and
starfish-shaped gel robots turning over (Otake et al., 1999-2002).
5.6
ENGINEERING STRENGTH CONSIDERATIONS
ON PAMPS GELS
It is worthwhile to mention a few works on engineering strength of PAMPS gel for
practical applications. It is certainly true that PAMPS gels are rather soft gels and
can easily break apart under tension or even compression or shear loadings. Whiting
