• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.52-57
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• 2015

Soft morphing robotics making use of smart material and based on biomimetic principles are capable of continuous locomotion in harmony with its environment. Since these robots do not use traditional mechanical components, they can be built to be light weight and capable of a diverse range of locomotion. This paper illustrates a flexible smart phone robot made of smart soft composite (SSC) with inchworm-like locomotion capable of two-way linear motion. Since rigid components are embedded within the robot, bending actuators with embedded rigid segments were investigated in order to obtain the maximum bending curvature. To verify the results, a simple mechanical model of this actuator was built and compared with experimental data. After that, the flexible robot was implemented as part of a smart phone robot where the rigid components of the phone were embedded within the matrix. Then, experiments were conducted to test the smart phone robot actuation force under different deflections to verify its load carrying capability. After that, the communication between the smart phone and robot controller was implemented and a corresponding phone application was developed. The locomotion of the smart phone robot actuated through an independent controller was also tested.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1914-1919
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• 2006

Recently, the microrobots powered by biological muscle actuators were proposed. Among the biological muscle actuators, frog muscle is well known as a good muscle actuator and has a large displacement, actuation forces and piezoelectric properties. Therefore, for the application of the biomimetic microrobot, this paper reports the electromechanical properties of frog muscle. First of all, the experimental setup has been established for measuring generative force of the frog muscle. Through the various electrical stimulating inputs to the frog muscle, we measured the contractile force of the frog muscle. From the measuring results, we found that the actuating contractile force responses of the frog muscle are determined by the amplitude, frequency, duty ratio, and wave form of the stimulation signal. This study will be beneficial for the development of the microrobot actuated by frog muscle.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.270-277
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• 2019

Inspired by small insects, which perform rapid and stable locomotion based on body softness and tripod gait, various milli-scale six-legged crawling robots were developed to move rapidly in harsh environment. In particular, cockroach's leg compliance was resembled to enhance the locomotion performance of the crawling robots. In this paper, we investigated the effects of changing leg compliance for the locomotion performance of the small light weight legged crawling robot under various payload condition. First, we developed robust milli-scale six-leg crawling robot which actuated by one motor and fabricated in SCM method with light and soft material. Using this robot platform, we measured the running velocity of the robot depending on the leg stiffness and payload. In result, there was optimal range of the leg stiffness enhancing the locomotion ability at each payload condition in the experiment. It suggests that the performance of the crawling robot can be improved by adjusting stiffness of the legs in given payload condition.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.69-77
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• 2009

Structural analysis of a brake shoe for commercial vehicle was performed using finite element method. Since the strength of a brake shoe is affected by the magnitude and distribution shape of the contact pressure with the drum, the contact pressure between the shoe friction material and drum was calculated using a 2-Dimensional non-linear contact analysis in a state. And the brake was actuated by input air pressure and the drum of it was calculated both stationary and dynamic based on forced torque applied to the drum during the static state analysis. The results of the above analysis were then used as the load boundary conditions for a 3-Dimensional shoe model analysis to determine the maximum strain on the shoes. In the analysis model, the values of tensile test were used for the material properties of the brake shoes and drum, while the values of compression test were used for the friction material. We assumed it as linear variation, even though the properties of friction material were actually non-linear. The experiments were carried out under the same analysis conditions used for fatigue test and under the same brake system which equipped with a brake drum based on the actual axle state in a vehicle. The strains were measured at the same locations where the analysis was performed on the shoes. The obtained results of the experiment matched well with those from the analysis. Consequently, the model used in this study was able to determine the stress at the maximum air pressure at the braking system, thereby a modified shoe model in facilitating was satisfied with the required endurance strength in the vehicle.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.194-201
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• 2004

Optical fibers are indispensable fer optical communication systems that transmit large volumes of data at high speed. But the aligning technology under the sub-micron accuracy is required for the precise axis adjustment and connection. For the purpose of precise alignment of the optical arrays, in this research, we have developed the 12-axis(with 8 automated axis and 4 manual axis) automatic optical fiber alignment system including the image processing-based searching system, the automatic loading system using the robot and the suction toot and the automatic UV bonding system. In order to obtain the sub-micron alignment accuracy, two 4-axis PC-based motion controllers and the two 50nm resolution 6-aixs micro-stage actuated by micro stepping motors are adopted. The fiber aligning procedure consists of two steps. Firstly, the optical wave guide and an input optical array are aligned by the 6-axis input micro-stage with the IR camera. The image processing technique is introduced to reduce primary manual aligning time and result in achieving the 50% decrease of aligning time. Secondly, the IR camera is replaced by the output micro-stage and a wave guide and two optical arrays are aligned simultaneously before the laser power intensity delivered to the optical powermeter reached the threshold value. When the aligning procedure is finished, the wave guide and arrays are W bonded. The automatic loading/unloading system is also introduced and the entire wave guide handing time is reduced significantly compared to the former commercial aligning system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.1 s.256
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• pp.36-42
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• 2007

This paper presents mechanical design, fabrication and test of a biomimetic fish robot actuated by a unimorph piezoceramic actuator, LIPCA(Lightweight Piezo-Composite curved Actuator.) We have designed a linkage mechanism that can convert bending motion of the LIPCA into the caudal fin movement. This linkage system consists of a rack-pinion system and four-bar linkage. Four types of artificial caudal fins that resemble caudal fin shapes of ostraciiform subcarangiform, carangiform, and thunniform fish, respectively, are attached to the posterior part of the robotic fish. The swimming test under 300 $V_{pp}$ input with 0.6 Hz to 1.2 Hz frequency was conducted to investigate effect of tail beat frequency and shape of caudal fin on the swimming speed of the robotic fish. At the frequency of 0.9 Hz, the maximum swimming speeds of 1.632 cm/s, 1.776 cm/s, 1.612 cm/s and 1.51 cm/s were reached for fish robots with ostraciiform, subcarangiform carangiform and thunniform caudal fins, respectively. The Strouhal number, which means the ratio between unsteady force and inertia force, or a measure of thrust efficiency, was calculated in order to examine thrust performance of the present biomimetic fish robot. The calculated Strouhal numbers show that the present robotic fish does not fall into the performance range of a fast swimming robot.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1128-1138
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• 2010

One of the typical problems in the precise vibration is resonance characteristics at low frequency disturbance due to a heavy mass. An electro-magnetic(EM) air spring is a kind of vibration control unit and active isolator. The EM air spring in this study aims at removing the low frequency resonance for semiconductor manufacturing. The mechanical and electronic parts in the active isolator are designed to operate under a weight of 2.5 tons. The EM spring is floated using air pressure in a pneumatic elastic chamber and actuated by EM levitation force. The actuator consists of a EM coil and a permanent magnetic plate which are installed inside of the chamber. An air mount was constructed for the experiment with a stone surface plate, 4 active air springs, 4 gap sensors, a DSP controller, and a multi-channel power amp. A PD control method and operating logic was applied to the DSP. Simulation using 1/4 model was carried out and compared with the experiments. The time duration and maximum peak at resonance frequency can be reduced sharply by the proposed system. The results show that the active system can avoid the resonance caused by the natural frequency of the passive system.

• Composites Research
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.12-17
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• 2011

Interfacial durability and electrical properties of CNT or ITO coated PVDF nanocomposites were investigated for self-sensor and micro actuator applications. Electrical resistivity of nanocomposites for the durability on interfacial adhesion was measured using four points method via fatigue test under cyclic loading. CNT/PVDF nanocomposite exhibited lower electrical resistivity and good self-sensing performance due to inherent electrical property. Durability on the interfacial adhesion was good for both CNT and ITO/PVDF nanocomposites. With static contact angle measurement, surface energy, work of adhesion, and spreading coefficient between either CNT or ITO and PVDF were obtained to verify the correlation with interfacial adhesion durability. The optimum actuation performance of CNT or ITO coated PVDF specimen was measured by the displacement change using laser displacement sensor with changing frequency and voltage. The displacement of actuated nanocomposites decreased with increasing frequency, whereas the displacement increased with voltage increment. Due to nanostructure and inherent electrical properties, CNT/PVDF nanocomposite exhibited better performance as self-sensor and micro actuator than ITO/PVDF case.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.46-58
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• 2018

A two-axis gimbal-type X-band antenna is widely used to transmit bulk image data from high-resolution observation satellites. However, undesirable microvibrations induced by driving the antenna should be attenuated, because they are a main cause of image-quality degradation of the observation satellite. In this study, a pseudoelastic memory alloy (SMA) gear was proposed to attenuate the microvibrations by driving the antenna in an azimuth angle. In addition, the proposed gear can overcome the limitations of the conventional titanium blade gear, which is not still enough and is vulnerable to plastic deformations under excessive torque. To investigate the basic characteristics of the proposed SMA mesh washer gear, a static load test was performed on the thickness of the SMA mesh washer and the rotation of the gear. Moreover, The microvibration measurement test demonstrated that the SMA mesh washer gear proposed in this study is effective for microvibration attenuation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2011

It has been shown in the literature that active adjustment of the intake area of a jet engine has potential to improve its fuel efficiency. This paper presents the design and control of a novel proof-of-concept active jet engine intake using Nickel-Titanium (Ni-Ti or Nitinol) shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuators. The Nitinol SMA material is used in this research due to its advantages of high power-to-weight ratio and electrical resistive actuation. The Nitinol SMA material can be fabricated into a variety of shapes, such as strips, foils, rods and wires. In this paper, SMA wires are used due to its ability to generate a large strain: up to 6% for repeated operations. The proposed proof-of-concept engine intake employs overlapping leaves in a concentric configuration. Each leaf is mounted on a supporting bar than can rotate. The supporting bars are actuated by an SMA wire actuator in a ring configuration. Electrical resistive heating is used to actuate the SMA wire actuator and rotate the supporting bars. To enable feedback control, a laser range sensor is used to detect the movement of a leaf and therefore the radius of the intake area. Due to the hysteresis, an inherent nonlinear phenomenon associated with SMAs, a nonlinear robust controller is used to control the SMA actuators. The control design uses the sliding-mode approach and can compensate the nonlinearities associated with the SMA actuator. A proof-of-concept model is fabricated and its feedback control experiments show that the intake area can be precisely controlled using the SMA wire actuator and has the ability to reduce the area up to 25%. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of engine intake area control using an SMA wire actuator under the proposed design.