• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1497-1502
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• 2012

To manufacture a robot hand that essentially mimics the functions of a human hand, it is necessary to develop flexible actuators and sensors. In this study, we propose the design, manufacture, and performance verification of flexible actuators and sensors based on Electro Active Polymer (EAP). EAP is fabricated as a type of film, and it moves with changes in the voltage because of contraction and expansion in the polymer film. Furthermore, if a force is applied to an EAP film, its thickness and effective area change, and therefore, the capacitance also changes. By using this mechanism, we produce capacitive actuators and sensors. In this study, we propose an EAP-based capacitive sensor and evaluate its use as a robot hand sensor.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2009

Today, reduction of $CO_2$ exhaustion gas for global-warming prevention becomes important issues in all industrial fields. Hydraulic systems have been widely used in industrial applications due to high power density and so on. However hydraulic pump is always being operated by engine or electric motor in the conventional hydraulic system. Therefore most of the conventional hydraulic system is not efficient system. Recently, an electro-hydraulic hybrid system, which combines electric and hydraulic technology in a compact unit, can be adapted to a wide variety of force, speed and torque requirements. In the electro-hydraulic hybrid system, hydraulic pump is operated by electric motor only when hydraulic power is needed. Therefore the electro-hydraulic system can reduce the energy consumption drastically when compared to the conventional hydraulic systems. This paper presents a new kind of hydraulic load simulator which is composed of electro-hydraulic hybrid system. Disturbances in the real working condition make the control performance decrease or go bad. QFT controller is designed to eliminate or reduce the disturbance and improve the control performance of the electro-hydraulic load simulator. Experimental results show that the proposed controller is verified to apply for electro-hydraulic hybrid system with varied external disturbances.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.1621-1631
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• 2005

In this paper, making the best use of the features of the electro-rheological (ER) valve, a two-port pressure control valve using ER fluids is proposed and manufactured. The ER-Valve characteristics are evaluated by changing the intensity of the electric field and the number of electrode. As only with electrical signal change to the ER-Valve in which ER fluid flowing, ER fluid flow is controlled, so development of simple ER-Valves have been tried. The ER-Valves and pressure drop check method are considered to be applied to the fluid power industry. Using the manufactured pressure control valve, a one-link manipulator with FHA (Flexible Hydraulic Actuator) is driven. As a result, it is experimentally confirmed that the pressure control valve using ER fluids is applicable to use in driving actuator. If it applies characteristics of the ER fluids, it will be able to apply in the control system for the ER Valve which occurs from industrial controller. After having durability test, shear stress increased regularly because of starch particles crushed by pump and particle size that was almost the same. Moreover, Ra of copper electrode increased about 1.56 times rather than before those of performing durability test, and Rz increased about 2.2 times.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1035-1040
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• 2011

In this paper we deal with a kinetic performance test system using hydraulic cylinder. It is possible to measure only current using the conventional electro-mechanical actuator when the bogie is in the process of the tilting. This makes impossible to measure the force acting on the tilting actuator. In order to overcome this problem a kinetic performance test system using hydraulic cylinder is proposed. The proposed system provide easy kinetic evaluation for the tilting mechanism and evaluation for the co-relation between load acting on the tilting actuator and the moving displacement(strock) of the tilting actuator.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1558-1562
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• 2008

Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC), one of Electro- Active Polymer (EAP) actuators, has great attention due to the low-voltage driven, large deformation and its potential for artificial muscles. In this paper, we firstly review fish swimming modes using various propulsion mechanisms. Based on study on the swimming mechanisms, we develop an underwater robot actuator which mimics fanning motion of webfoot form. It consists of four actuators fabricated by using IPMC and PDMS which mimics Bio-inspired motion Experiments using a prototype show that the webfooted IPMC actuator generates large deformation and propulsion.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.99-104
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• 2018

A micro electromagnetic actuator with high vibration efficiency is proposed for use in an implantable hearing device. The actuator, which can be implanted in the middle ear, consists of membranes based on the stainless steel 304 (SUS-304), and other components. In conventional actuators, in which a thick membrane and a silicone elastomer are used, the size reduction was difficult. In order to miniaturize the size of the actuator, it is necessary to reduce the size of the actuation potion that generates the driving force, resulting in reduction of the electromagnetic force. In this paper, the electromagnetic actuator is further miniaturized by the metal membrane and the vibration amplitude is also optimized. The actuator designed according to the simulation results was fabricated by using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. In particular, a $20{\mu}m$ thick metal membrane was fabricated using the erosion process, which reduced the length of the actuator by more than $400{\mu}m$. In the experiments, the vibration displacement characteristics of the optimized actuator were above 400 nm within the range of 0.1 to 1 kHz when a current of $1mA_{rms}$ was applied to the coil.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1394-1405
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• 2002

The performance of micro-actuators utilizing radiometric forces are studied numerically. The Knudsen number based on gas density and characteristic dimension is varied from near-continuum to highly rarefied conditions. Direct simulation Monte Carlo(DSMC) calculations have been performed to estimate the performance of the micro-actuators. In the present DSMC method, the variable hard sphere molecular model and no time counter technique are used to simulate the molecular collision kinetics. For simulation of diatomic gas flows, the Borgnakke-Larsen phenomenological model is adopted to redistribute the translational and internal energies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1169-1181
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• 1994

Vibration isolation of mechanical systems, in general, is achieved through passive or active vibration isolators. Passive vibration isolator has an inherenrt performance limitation. Whereas, active vibration isolator provides significantly superior vibration-isolation performance at the cost of energy sources and sensors. Recently, in many cases, such as suspension system, precision machinery ... etc, active isolation system outweighs its limitation. Therefore, many studies, researches, and applications are carried out in this field. In this study, vibration-isolation characteristics of an active vibration control system using electromagnetic force actuator are investigated. Several control algorithms including optimal, feedforward are used for active vibration isolation. From the experimental results of each algorithm, effective control algorithms for this active vibration-isolation system are proposed.

• Composites Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.50-54
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• 2007

The Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC), an electro-active polymer, has many advantages including bending actuation, low weight, low power consumption, and flexibility. These advantages coincide with the requirements of a bio-related application. Thus, IPMC is promising materials for bio-mimetic actuator and sensor applications. Before applying IPMC to actual application, basic mechanical properties of IPMC should be studied in order to utilize IPMC for practical uses. Therefore, IPMCs are fabricated to investigate the mechanical characteristics. Nafion is used as a base ionic polymer. Mason samples cast with various thicknesses are used to test the thickness effects of IPMC. Subsequently, IPMC is fabricated using the chemical reduction method. The deformation, blocking force and frequency response of the IPMC actuator are important properties. In this present study, the performances of the IPMC actuators, including the deformation, blocking force and natural frequency, are then obtained according to only the input voltage and IPMC dimensions. Finally, the empirical performance model and the equivalent stiffness model of the IPMC actuator are established using experiments results.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.32-38
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• 2016

For this paper, the position-control performances of dual EHA(electro-hydrostatic actuator) systems were investigated according to two cases wherein the double-rod- and single-rod-type hydraulic cylinders were combined. Since the control performance is significantly dependent on the load conditions including external forces such as the inertia load, it is proposed here that the two sub-EHAs are driven by separate position and force controllers, instead of two identical position controllers. According to the simulation results, the best performance was achieved by the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA that was combined with a force-controlled double-rod-type EHA. As the force-controlled double-rod-type EHA compensated for the external loads on the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA, the position-control performance was not influenced by external forces including the inertia load. In addition, the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA contributed to the enhancement of the damping ratio by absorbing the pressure peaks through its internal accumulator. Due to the symmetrical piston areas, the double-rod-type EHA is more suitable for force control than the single-rod- type EHA.