Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (SC634)
Gain a comprehensive overview of present technologies, understand crucial factors in EAP design and analysis, and discover what lies ahead in this rapidly emerging field.
This course will enable you to:
- Identify EAP based available and emerging actuators
- Learn the fundamentals of electroactive behavior in leading EAP materials
- Describe the capabilities, limitations and benefits of electroactive polymers
- Assess the applicability of current EAP actuators while accounting for their limitations
- Understand mechanical analysis and design principles associated with EAP
- Describe the future prospects of EAP materials as actuators and their applications
Intended Audience:
- Engineers, scientists and managers who need to understand the basic concepts of EAP
- Engineers, scientists and managers who are interested in learning, applying or engineering mechanisms or devices using EAP materials.
- Those who wish to discover the excitement of research and development in EAP materials and their applications.
Instructors:
Yoseph Bar-Cohen is Senior Research Scientist and Supervisor, Advanced Technologies Group, at JPL. He is a leading expert in advanced actuators using electroactive polymers and ceramic materials. Dr. Bar-Cohen is a Fellow of SPIE and ASNT. He is the author/coauthor of numerous publications, has many registered patents and is the recipient of many awards and honors. View more information on Dr. Bar-Cohen
John D. W.Madden is an Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His research areas include the application of EAP materials in active catheters, as well as the development and characterization of molecular and carbon nanotube actuators. View more information on Prof. Madden
Qibing Pei is professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests cover a wide range of soft materials and span from materials synthesis, processing, to design of functional devices. He applies molecular design and nano-scale engineering in the discovery of new polymers with novel electronic or mechanical property. View more information on Prof. Pei
Course Details
This course will provide an overview of the field of EAP covering the state of the art, challenges and potential. Two general classes of polymer materials are described, namely those that involve ionic mechanisms (Ionic EAP), and field activated materials (Electronic EAP). The basic mechanisms responsible for the electroactive behavior of EAP materials will be covered and compared with natural muscles. Analytical models, fabrication processes and methods of characterizing these materials will be described. Moreover, the currently considered applications will be reviewed including actuators, robotics, animatronics, medical, and biologically inspired mechanisms, so called biomimetics. The course begins with an overview of the field, current capabilities, potential and challenges. The course follows with a description of the currently available EAP materials and principles of operating them as actuators and artificial muscles. The course ends with a review of the future prospect of EAP as actuators in systems, mechanisms and smart structures for space, industrial and medical applications.
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