MDOF Ionic-Polymer-Metal-Composite Actuators with Selectively Grown Multiple Electrodes

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The ionic polymer-metal composite actuators with selectively grown multiple electrodes were developed to mimic the swimming locomotion of a fish. The developed method is based on combining electroplating with the electroless chemical reduction using the patterned mask. The advantages of this fabrication method are that the initial compositing between the polymer and platinum particles can be assured by the chemical reduction method, and the thickness of each electrode can be controlled easily and rapidly by electroplating. By using the fabricated actuator with a multiple degree of freedom, the oscillatory wave of the flexible membrane actuator was generated and a twisting motion was also realized to verify the possibility of mimicking the fish-like locomotion. The frequency response function was analyzed to investigate the natural frequency and the damping factor by a mechanical shaker and direct electrical excitation through the swept-sine method. Present results show that this novel method can be a promising technique to easily pattern each of multiple electrodes and to implement the biomimetic motion of the polymer actuators with good mechanical bending performance.