Validating Usability of Ionomeric Polymer-Metal Composite Actuators for Real World Applications

Abstract – Ionomeric polymer-metal composites (IPMC) are electroactive polymer (EAP) materials that bend when electrically stimulated. As IPMC is a relatively new material, proper control methods have not yet evolved. In this paper the usability of IMPC actuators in real world applications is examined from the point of view of precision control. We propose a classical inverted pendulum control problem as a testbed. We suggest that if the pendulum can be balanced, then we have proven the usability of IPMC actuators for precise control tasks. In this paper we describe an inverted pendulum system driven by an IPMC actuator with PC-based control and a camera in the feedback loop. We report the preliminary experimental results in controlling the pendulum and discuss further improvements. To our knowledge this is the first attempt to control a system or manipulate an object with IMPC actuators in a feedback loop. Index Terms – electroactive polymers, soft actuators, IPMC