Abstract
This work deals with the development of a descriptive and interactive demonstrator platform with a total of four different shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator systems. The motivation for this demonstrator development is to illustrate this new special decoupled antagonist system configuration, its capabilities of fast switching times and the variety in design. In total, two linear actuators and two rotary actuators are combined in a marble-run like setup. In this run, a ping-pong ball travels through different stations, only to be transported to the next station through the sequential activation of the actuation systems. One of the rotary actuators provides a 90° rotation in order to display the potential of an actuator in a production line. The second rotary actuator contains a bistable element to illustrate another type of energy efficient SMA actuator structure. The two linear actuators are very similar in their design, with one of them showing miniaturization potential of this mechanism e.g. for compact valve systems.
In all cases a quick back and forth movement of several hundred milliseconds is realized. For control of the actuators, a single circuit board is developed and PWM based activation strategy is used to account for the different electrical resistances of the various installed SMA wires in this demonstrator.
