Abstract

Efficient and powerful actuation technologies that are biomimetic and compliant are required for robotic applications, which might be used for human augmentations. Twisted and coiled polymer fishing line actuators (TCPFL) have attracted a great deal of attention for their use as soft actuators in various robotic applications due to high actuation stroke, high power to weight ratio, low cost and minimal hysteresis. However, they have drawbacks such as low actuation frequency due to slow cooling, high power consumption and low efficiency. In this paper, we have described the fabrication and characterization of novel nanomaterial coating consisting of mesoporous carbon, nickel and silver powder with poly vinyl alcohol (C-NiAg-PVA) for mandrel-coiled twisted and coiled artificial muscles from fishing line. Addition of nickel and silver (NiAg) powder in mesoporous carbon nanoparticles, improves thermal contacts and enhances the actuator performance with better dynamic actuation (∼25 % more actuation) and better cooling for cyclic actuation. Different input currents (0.25 A, 0.26 A, 0.27 A) were provided to the coated and non-coated TCPFL (50 mm in length, 3.3 mm in diameter) and it was observed that the coated actuators consume at least ∼10 % less power than the non-coated actuators when tested in air. This research shows great potential for simple nanomaterial coating of carbon-based and metallic nanomaterials to produce high performing electrothermal actuators.

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