Development of Rotary Variable Damping and Stiffness Magnetorheological Dampers and their Applications on Robotic Arms and Seat Suspensions

This thesis successfully expanded the idea of variable damping and stiffness (VSVD) from linear magnetorheological dampers (MR) to rotary magnetorheological dampers; and explored the applications of rotary MR dampers on the robotic arms and seat suspension. The idea of variable damping and stiffness has been proved to be able to reduce vibration to a large degree. Variable damping can reduce the vibration amplitude and variable stiffness can shift the natural frequency of the system from excitation and prevent resonance. Linear MR dampers with the capacity of variable damping and stiffness have been studied by researchers. However, Linear MR dampers usually require larger installation space than rotary MR dampers, and need more expensive MR fluids to fill in their chambers. Furthermore, rotary MR dampers are inherently more suitable than linear MR dampers in rotary motions like braking devices or robot joints. Hence, rotary MR dampers capable of simultaneously varying the damping and stiffness are very attractive to solve angular vibration problems. Out of this motivation, a rotary VSVD MR damper was designed, prototyped, with its feature of variable damping and stiffness verified by experimental property tests in this thesis. Its mathematical model was also built with the parameters identified. The experimental tests indicated that it has a 141.6% damping variation and 618.1% stiffness variation. This damper’s successful development paved the way for the applications of rotary MR dampers with the similar capability of variable damping and stiffness

Smart Materials and Devices for Energy Harvesting

This book is devoted to energy harvesting from smart materials and devices. It focusses on the latest available techniques recently published by researchers all over the world. Energy Harvesting allows otherwise wasted environmental energy to be converted into electric energy, such as vibrations, wind and solar energy. It is a common experience that the limiting factor for wearable electronics, such as smartphones or wearable bands, or for wireless sensors in harsh environments, is the finite energy stored in onboard batteries. Therefore, the answer to the battery “charge or change” issue is energy harvesting because it converts the energy in the precise location where it is needed. In order to achieve this, suitable smart materials are needed, such as piezoelectrics or magnetostrictives. Moreover, energy harvesting may also be exploited for other crucial applications, such as for the powering of implantable medical/sensing devices for humans and animals. Therefore, energy harvesting from smart materials will become increasingly important in the future. This book provides a broad perspective on this topic for researchers and readers with both physics and engineering backgrounds

The Effect of Crystallographic Orientation and Thermo-mechanical Loading Conditions on the Phase Transformation Characteristics of Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys

The effects of crystallographic orientation, temperature and heat treatment on superelastic response of Ni45Mn36.5Co5In13.5 single crystals were investigated. Superelastic experiments with and without various magnetic field were conducted under compression on a custom built magneto-thermo-mechanical test setup. Magnetostress, which is the difference in critical stress levels for the martensitic transformation with and without magnetic field, was determined as a function of crystallographic orientation, heat treatment and temperature parameters. Magnetostress of [111] crystals was observed to be much higher than that of [001] crystals with same heat treatment. Water quenched samples have the highest magnetostress among other samples with the same orientation that were oil quenched and furnace cooled. Crystal structure and atomic ordering of the samples were examined using Synchrotron High-Energy X-Ray Diffraction to rationalize observed differences. Magnetostress levels were also traced at various temperatures. A Quantum Design superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) was utilized to examine the magnetic properties of the material. The difference in saturation magnetization at various temperatures was analyzed to explain the temperature effect on magnetostress. Calculations based on the energy conversion from available magnetic energy to mechanical work output were used to predict the magnetic field dependence of magnetostress, which provides a guideline in material selection for the reversible magnetic field induced martensitic phase transformation. Isothermal superelastic response and load-biased shape memory response of Co48Ni33Al29 single crystals were determined as a function of temperature and stress, respectively. The aim of the work is to provide a new direction to understand the anomaly of transformation strain and hysteresis for ferromagnetic shape memory alloys. Thermo-mechanical behavior of Co48Ni33Al29 single crystal was determined by a custom built thermo-mechanical compression setup based on an electromechanical test frame made by MTS. Transformation strain was observed to decrease with increasing applied stress in isothermal tests or increasing temperature in superelastic experiments. The variation in the lattice constant in martensite and austenite was verified to account for such a trend. It was also discovered that both thermal and stress hysteresis decreased with increasing applied stress and temperature, respectively. Multiple factors may be responsible for the phenomenon, including the increase of dislocation, the compatibility between martensite and austenite phase

Design of active suspension control based upon use of tubular linear motor and quarter-car model

The design, fabrication, and testing of a quarter-car facility coupled with various control algorithms are presented in this thesis. An experimental linear tubular motor, capable of producing a 52-N force, provides control actuation to the model. Controllers consisting of two designs were implemented: a classical controller employing lead and lag networks and a state-space feedback design. Each design was extensively simulated to screen for receptiveness to actuation force limitations and robustness regarding the inexact tire modeling. The goal of each controller was to minimize the acceleration of the sprung mass in the presence of simulated road disturbances, modeled by both sinusoidal and step input excitation wheels. Different reference velocity inputs were applied to the control scheme. Responses to a zero reference were juxtaposed to those that resulted from tracking a reference built off a model that incorporated inertial-frame damping attached to the sprung mass. The outcome of this comparison was that low-frequency disturbances were attenuated better when tracking a zero reference, but the reference relaxation introduced by the inertialframe damping model allowed for better-attenuated high frequency signals. Employing an inertial-frame damping value of 250 N-s/m, the rejected frequency component of the system response synchronous with the disturbance input excitation of 40 rad/s bettered by 33% and 28% when feeding control force from the classical controller and state-space controller, respectively. The experimental analysis conducted on the classical and state-space controllers produced sinusoidal disturbance rejection of at worst 50% within their respective bandwidths. At 25 rad/s, the classical controller was able to remove 80% of the base component synchronous with the disturbance excitation frequency, while the state-space controller filtered out nearly 60%. Analysis on the system's ability to reject step disturbances was greatly confounded with the destructive lateral loading transferred during the excitation process. As a result, subjection to excitation could only occur up to 25 rad/s. At the 20 rad/s response synchronous to the disturbance excitation, the classical and state-space controllers removed 85% and 70% of the disturbance, respectively. Sharp spikes in timebased amplitude were present due to the binding that ensued during testing

Réseau d’actionneurs électromagnétiques numériques : caractérisation d’une application de type convoyage et conception optimisée

In mechanical or mechatronical systems, actuators are the components used to convert input energy, generally electrical energy, into mechanical tasks such as motion, force or a combination of both. Analogical actuator and digital actuator are two common types of actuators. Digital actuators have the advantages of open-loop control, low energy consumption and etc compared to analogical actuators. However, digital actuators present two main drawbacks. The manufacturing errors of these actuators have to be precisely controlled because, unlike to analogical actuators, a manufacturing error cannot be compensated using the control law. Another drawback is their inability to realize continuous tasks because of their discrete stroke. An assembly of several digital actuators can nevertheless realize multi-discrete tasks. This thesis focuses on the experimental characterization and optimization design of a digital actuators array for planar conveyance application. The firs main objective of the present thesis is focused on the characterization of the existing actuators array and also a planar conveyance application based on the actuators array. For that purpose, a modeling of the actuators array and experimental test has been carried out in order to determine the influence of some parameters on the actuators array behavior. The second objective is to design a new version of the actuators array based on the experience of the first prototype. An optimization of the design has then been realized using genetic algorithm techniques while considering several criteria.Dans les systèmes mécaniques ou mécatroniques, les actionneurs sont les composants utilisés pour convertir l’énergie d’entrée, généralement l’énergie électrique, en tâche mécanique telles que le mouvement, la force ou une combinaison des deux. Actionneur analogique et actionneur numérique sont les deux types d’actionneurs les plus communs. Les actionneurs numériques possèdent les avantages du contrôle en boucle ouverte, faible consommation d’énergie par rapport aux actionneurs analogiques. Cependant, les actionneurs numériques présentent deux inconvénients majeurs. Les erreurs de fabrication de ces actionneurs doivent être contrôlées précisément parce que, contrairement à des actionneurs analogiques, une erreur de fabrication ne peut pas être compensée par la loi de commande. Un autre inconvénient est leur capacité à réaliser les tâches continues en raison de leur corse discrète. Un assemblage de plusieurs actionneurs numériques peut néanmoins réaliser des tâches multiples discrètes. Cette thèse porte sur la caractérisation et l’optimisation d’une conception expérimentale actionneurs tableau numériques pour l’application planaire de transport. Le premier objectif principal de la présente thèse est axé sur la caractérisation de l’ensemble des actionneurs existants et aussi une application planaire de transport sur la base du tableau des actionneurs. A cette fin, une modélisation de la matrice des actionneurs essais expérimentaux ont été effectués afin de déterminer l’influence de certains paramètres sur le comportement des actionneurs de tableau. Le deuxième objectif est de concevoir une nouvelle version du tableau actionneurs sur la base de l’expérience du premier prototype. Une optimisation de la conception a ensuite été réalisée en utilisant des techniques d’algorithmes génétiques tout en tenant compte de plusieurs critères

ANALYSIS AND SHAPE MODELING OF THIN PIEZOELECTRIC ACTUATORS

The field of smart materials is an increasingly growing area of research. In aerodynamics applications especially, transducers have to fulfill a series of requirements such as light weight, size, energy consumption, robustness and durability. Piezoelectric transducers, devices which transform an electrical signal into motion, fulfill many of these requirements. Specifically, piezoelectric composites are of interest due to their added toughness and ease of integration into a structure. Resulting composites have a characteristic initial curvature with accompanying residual stresses that are responsible for enhanced performance, relative to flat actuators, when the active material is energized. A number of transducer designs based on composites have been developed. Two of these piezoelectric composites called Thunder® and Lipca are analyzed. Thunder is a composite of steel, polyimide adhesive, PZT, polyimide adhesive, and aluminum; and Lipca is a composite of fiberglass epoxy, carbon/epoxy, PZT, and fiberglass epoxy.Room temperature shapes of circular and rectangular Thunder® and Lipca actuators are predicted by using the Rayleigh-Ritz model. This technique is based on the assumption that the stable geometric configuration developed in the actuator after manufacturing, is the configuration that minimizes the total potential energy. This energy is a function of the displacement field which can be approximated by two functions, a four term model, and a twenty-three term model. The coefficients in the models are determined by minimizing the total potential energy of the actuator. The actuator deformations are assumed to obey the Kirchhoff hypothesis and the actuator layers are assumed to be in the state of plane stress.The four coefficient model produces results not comparable to three-dimensional surface topology maps. The twenty-three coefficient model however, is shown to have generally good agreement with the data for all studied actuators. To quantify the difference, at the cross section of each actuator, a profile is fitted by using a quadratic equation obtaining regression coefficients above 99%. For all actuators, the error between experimental and the calculated centerline data is less than 6%. For the 6R model however, the error is approximately 25%. One of the possible reasons for the error may be the tolerance of the thickness of the PZT layer. By changing the PZT thickness ±6% of the nominal value, over predicts the experimental dome height by 20%. Another possible reason for the discrepancy is the thickness of the actuator, thicker than all actuators used in this study, which might contradict the validity of the thin actuator assumption. Furthermore, by calculating the side-length-to-thickness ratio, 115 in this case, as stated by Aimmanee & Hyer (2004), may cause instability, and could result in unexpected behavior.The neutral axis position, calculated by using a force balance at equilibrium under the assumption of pure bending, for all actuators used in this study is determined and compared to the ceramic layer position. The results indicated that for all Thunder® models the neutral axis is located below the ceramic layer indicating that the PZT wafer may be in total tension. For the Lipca C2 device however, the neutral axis is found to be above the ceramic layer, indicating that the piezoelectric layer may be in total compression.Strain fields are also predicted with contradicting results when compared to the theory that the ceramic is in tension in the Thunder actuators. The contradiction on the strain calculations can be explained by the manner the strain field is derived: by differentiating and squaring the high-order polynomials of the approximated displacement component losing accuracy when it comes to predicting normal and shear strains.The Rayleigh-Ritz technique can become a tool to perform parametric studies of the key elements for manufacturing to optimize specific features of the actuators

Design, Fabrication and Control of a Magnetic Capsule Robot for the Human Esophagus

Biomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment. As the result of improvements in robotics and micro technology science in the 20th century, micro electromechanical system technology has joined with medical applications which results in micro robotic medical applications. Drug delivery is one of the most important and controversial topics which scientists and engineers have tried to improve in medical applications. For diseases like cancer, localized drug delivery is a highlight target involving bombarding a small area of a human’s body and this technology has not been completely achieved yet. The ultimate objective of this thesis is the development of wireless capsule robot controlled by a magnetic drive unit. A magnetic drive unit is a system that consists of electromagnets, which produce the magnetic field from outside of the patient’s body. The capsule robot, which is the slave robot in the system, moves inside a human’s gastrointestinal tract. This project is focused mainly on a human esophagus and all the experiments are done in a prototype of the human’s esophagus. Drug delivery for diseases like cancer is the objective of the capsule robot. The proposed design consists of a slave permanent magnet for the motion of capsule robot in a tube, a reservoir of drug, and a micro mechanical mechanism for drug release. The capsule robot is fabricated and developed in a 12mm length and 5mm diameter with the weight of 1.78 grams without the built-in permanent magnet. The drug delivery system is a semi-magnetized system, which can be controlled by an external magnetic field. It consists of a mechanical plunger and spring, which can be open and close through an external magnetic field manipulation. The amount of drug for a desired location can be controlled by manipulating the external magnetic field. To achieve this target, analytical modeling is conducted. A numerical simulation and an experimental setup demonstrate that a capsule robot in a human esophagus in a simple and multi channel system. Horizontal control is set for the capsule robot, using a custom-designed controller and a colored liquid is released with the external magnetic field. The present study with its fabricated prototype is a research is this area to prove the concept of wireless control of a robot inside a human body and the potential for a drug delivery system. It is expected that the results achieved in this project will help realize and promote capsule robot for medical treatments

Contribution au micro-actionnement multi-stable piloté par radiations optiques

In this work, a bistable mechanism based on antagonistic pre-shaped double beams was proposed. Employing the proposed bistable mechanism, a quadristable micro-actuator was designed. ln order to validate the quadristability of the device, a meso-scaled prototype was fabricated from MDF by laser cutting. After the quadristability was experimentally confirmed, a quadristable micro-actuator was realized on SOl wafer using DRIE technique. Strokes for inner row and outer row were reduced to 300 µm and 200 µm respectively. For the actuation of the quadristable micro-actuator,laser heated SMA elements with deposited Si02 layer were used to realize the optical wireless actuation. With the help of a laser beam steering micro-mirror, both inner row and outer row were successfully actuated. ln order to further reduce the stroke, a bistable actuator with stroke reducing structure was designed and a prototype eut from MDF was tested. Bistability was validated and a stroke of 1µm was experimentally achieved. Based on this bistable module, a multistable nano-actuator, which contains four parallel coupled bistable modules,was designed and simulated. The simulated result have indicated that it was capable of outputs 16 discrete stable positions available from 0 nm to 150 nm with a step of 10 nm between two stable positions.Cette thèse traite le sujet du micro-actionnement multistable employant des radiations optiques pour atteindre les différentes positions offertes par le micro-actionneur. Dans le cadre des travaux réalisés, un mécanisme bistable reposant sur un principe de doubles poutres préformées situées en position antagoniste est proposé, et, sur cette brique élémentaire, un micro-actionneur quadristable a été conçu. Afin de valider le principe de fonctionnement de micro-actionneur, des procédés de fabrication Laser (sur le matériau « médium - MDF») puis DRIE (sur un wafer SOI de silicium) ont été utilisés. Sur le prototype en silicium, permettant une réduction des courses du rang interne et du rang externe du micro-actionneur, celles-ci ont été fixées à 300 µm et 200 µm respectivement. L’actionnement à distance de ce micro-actionneur a été prouvé en utilisant le chauffage laser d’un élément actif en Nitinol structuré par un dépôt de SiO2, ceci générant un effet « deux sens » de l’élément actif permettant d’annuler la charge sur les poutres du micro-actionneur une fois celui-ci déclenché puis en position stable. L’utilisation d’un banc expérimental incluant une membrane MEMS de balayage laser a permis de démontrer la quadristabilité du micro-actionneur sur 90 000 cycles. Afin de réduire davantage la course de ce micro-actionneur, des concepts de dispositifs de réduction de course ont été développés pour démontrer, à partir de prototypes fabriqué en MDF par usinage laser, la capacité à atteindre une course de 1 µm. Enfin, à la suite de ces travaux de réduction de course, un concept de nano-actionneur multistable a été proposé. Ce nano-actionneur est composé de quatre modules bistables liés et disposés en parallèle pour offrir 16 positions discrètes sur une course rectiligne. Les simulations de cet actionneur montrent la possibilité d’atteindre les 15 positions espacées de 10 nm sur une course de 150 nm

Study of thermochromic nature of VO2 for reconfigurable frequency selection applications

The goal of this project is to investigate the use of vanadium dioxide in reconfigurable microwave devices such as antennas or filters. The second phase would see the creation of a more concrete application. The ability of vanadium dioxide (VO2) to change its structure above a certain temperature is of particular interest. Under 68°C, VO2 behaves like a dielectric, but when it reaches and exceeds that temperature, it behaves like a metal. With this in mind, we wanted to demonstrate the possibility of creating a reconfigurable FSS for spatial filtering by selectively heating the VO2 sample's surface area. A laser was used to select which area of the sample to heat: by shaping the beam, we were able to illuminate, and thus heat, only specific areas. This dissertation also describes the use of the time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) technique to characterise vanadium dioxide to design these FSS images projected on the VO2 surface. We show that TRMC is a versatile technique for determining the electromagnetic material properties and conductivity of VO2 compounds. This was used to compare the behaviour of several VO2 samples of varying thicknesses and fabrication technologies.James Watt Scholarshi