• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.135-161
• /
• 2013

This work presents a test platform for the assessment and benchmarking of modern actuators which have been specifically developed for the new field and service robotics applications. This versatile platform has been designed for the comparative analysis of actuators of dissimilar technology and operating conditions. It combines a modular design to adapt to linear and rotational actuators of different sizes, shapes and functions, as well as those with different load capacities, power and displacement. This test platform emulates the kinematics of robotic joints while an adaptive antagonist-load actuator allows reproducing the variable dynamic loads that actuators used in real robotics applications will be subjected to. A data acquisition system is used for monitoring and analyzing test actuator performance. The test platform combines hardware and software in the loop to allow actuator performance characterization. The use of the proposed test platform is demonstrated through the characterization and benchmarking of three controllable impedance actuators recently being incorporated into modern robotics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 1997.04a
• /
• pp.423-427
• /
• 1997

Recently, distributed piezoelectric actuators have drawn attention due to their potential applicability within smart structures. Because they serve not only as active components but also passive components, it is difficult to estimate their characteristics accurately. In this study a finite element method based on layerwise theory has been formulated to analyze the characteristics of the distributed piezoelectric actuators. The present method has the capability to describe more refined strain distribution and more realistic boundary conditions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.225-235
• /
• 2006

With the discovery in plants of the proteinaceous forisome crystalloid (Knoblauch, et al. 2003), a novel, non-living, ATP-independent biological material became available to the designer of smart materials for advanced actuating and sensing. The in vitro studies of Knoblauch, et al. show that forisomes (2-4 micron wide and 10-40 micron long) can be repeatedly stimulated to contract and expand anisotropically by shifting either the ambient pH or the ambient calcium ion concentration. Because of their unique abilities to develop and reverse strains greater than 20% in time periods less than one second, forisomes have the potential to outperform current smart materials as advanced, biomimetic, multi-functional, smart sensors or actuators. Probing forisome material properties is an immediate need to lay the foundation for synthesizing forisomebased smart materials for health monitoring of structural integrity in civil infrastructure and for aerospace hardware. Microfluidics is a growing, vibrant technology with increasingly diverse applications. Here, we use microfluidics to study the surface interaction between forisome and substrate and the conformational dynamics of forisomes within a confined geometry to lay the foundation for forisome-based smart materials synthesis in controlled and repeatable environment.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.278-286
• /
• 2008

Reliable functionalities for autonomous navigation and object recognition/handling are key technologies to service robots for executing useful services in human environments. A considerable amount of research has been conducted to make the service robot perform these operations with its own sensors, actuators and a knowledge database. With all heavy sensors, actuators and a database, the robot could have performed the given tasks in a limited environment or showed the limited capabilities in a natural environment. With the new paradigms on robot technologies, we attempted to apply smart environments technologies-such as RFID, sensor network and wireless network- to robot functionalities for executing reliable services. In this paper, we introduce concepts of proposed smart environments based robot navigation and object recognition/handling method and present results on robot services. Even though our methods are different from existing robot technologies, successful implementation result on real applications shows the effectiveness of our approaches.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1041-1062
• /
• 2015

In this paper a method of finding optimal positions for piezoelectric actuators and sensors on different structures is presented. The genetic algorithm and multi-objective genetic algorithm are selected for optimization and $H_{\infty}$ norm is defined as a cost function for the optimization process. To optimize the placement concerning the selected modes simultaneously, the multi-objective genetic algorithm is used. The optimization is investigated for two different structures: a cantilever beam and a simply supported plate. Vibrating structures are controlled in a closed loop with feedback gains, which are obtained using optimal LQ control strategy. Finally, output of a structure with optimized placement is compared with the output of the structure with an arbitrary, non-optimal placement of piezoelectric patches.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.27-41
• /
• 2014

An active flow control technique based on "smart-tabs" is proposed to delay flow separation on a circular cylinder. The actuators are retractable and orientable multilayer piezoelectric tabs which protrude perpendicularly from the model surface. They are mounted along the spanwise direction with constant spacing. The effectiveness of the control was tested in pre-critical and in post-critical regime by evaluating the effects of several control parameters of the tabs like frequency, amplitude, height, angular position and plate incidence with respect to the local flow. Measurements of the mean static pressure distribution around the cylinder were used to estimate the pressure drag coefficient. The maximum drag reduction achieved in the pre-critical regime was of the order of 30%, whereas in the post-critical regime was about 10%, 3% of which due to active forcing. Furthermore, pressure fluctuation measurements were performed and spectral analysis indicated an almost complete suppression of the vortex shedding in active forcing conditions.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.334-340
• /
• 2007

This paper introduces a prototype smart home environment that is built in the research building to demonstrate the feasibility of a robot-assisted future home environment. Localization, navigation, object recognition and handling are core functionalities that an intelligent service robot should provide. A huge amount of research effort has been made to make the service robot perform these functions with its own sensors, actuators and a knowledge base. With all complicated configuration of sensors, actuators and a database, the robot could only perform the given tasks in a predefined environment or show the limited capabilities in a natural environment. We started a smart home environment for service robots for simple service robots to provide reliable services by communicating with the environment through the wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we introduce various types of smart devices that are developed for assisting the robot in the environment by providing sensor and actuator capabilities. In addition, we present how the devices are integrated to constitute the smart home environment for service robots.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.127-130
• /
• 2004

In this paper, active shape control of composite structure actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) wires is presented. Hybrid composite structure was established by attaching SMA actuators on the surfaces of graphite/epoxy composite beam using bolt-joint connectors. SMA actuators were activated by phase transformation, which induced by temperature rising over austenite finish temperatures. In this paper, electrical resistive heating was applied to the hybrid composite structures to activate the SMA actuators. For faster and more accurate shape or deflection control of the hybrid composite structure, PID feedback controller was designed from numerical simulations and experimentally applied to the SMA actuators.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.133-143
• /
• 2024

Piezoelectric (PZT) actuators have been widely used in precision positioning fields for their excellent displacement resolution. However, due to the inherent characteristics of piezoelectric actuators, hysteresis has been proven to greatly reduce positioning performance. In this paper, five mathematical hysteretic models based on activation function are proposed to characterize the nonlinear hysteresis characteristics of piezoelectric actuators. Then the performance of the proposed models is verified by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the experiment data. Thirdly, the fitting performance of the proposed models is compared with the classical Bouc-Wen model. Finally, the performance of the five proposed models in modelling hysteresis nonlinearity of piezoelectric drivers is compared, in terms of RMSE, MAPE, SAPE and operation efficiency, and relevant suggestions are given.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.455-468
• /
• 2006

Smart structural systems are defined as ones that demonstrate the ability to modify their characteristics and/or properties in order to respond favorably to unexpected severe loading conditions. The performance of such a task requires a set of additional components to be integrated within such systems. These components belong to three major categories, sensors, processors and actuators. It is wellknown that all structural systems entail some level of uncertainty, because of their extremely complex nature, lack of complete information, simplifications and modeling. Similarly, sensors, processors and actuators are expected to reflect a similar uncertain behavior. As it is imperative to be able to evaluate the impact of such components on the behavior of the system, it is as important to ensure, or at least evaluate, the reliability of such components. In this paper, a system model for reliability assessment of smart structural systems is outlined. The presented model is considered a necessary first step in the development of a reliability assessment algorithm for smart structural systems. The system model outlines the basic components of the system, in addition to, performance functions and inter-relations among individual components. A fault tree model is developed in order to aggregate the individual underlying component reliabilities into an overall system reliability measure. Identification of appropriate limit states for all underlying components are beyond the scope of this paper. However, it is the objective of this paper to set up the necessary framework for identifying such limit states. A sample model for a three-story single bay smart rigid frame, is developed in order to demonstrate the proposed framework.