Possible design/fabrication of a soft biomimetic magic (flying) carpet made with Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs)
- International Robotics & Automation Journal
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Mohsen Shahinpoor
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Abstract
A novel design of an artificial soft robot similar to the motions of a magic carpet is presented.
Reported in the planning, designing, and fabricating of a biomimetic magic (flying) carpet
made with ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs). A new family of IPMC sensors and
actuators is proposed to be used as a flexible plate and a flexible carpet to form a biomimetic
flexible soft sensor and actuator system. The magic carpets made with IPMCs will be
experimentally capable of bending, rolling, turning, twisting, and simultaneous sensing.
However, their sensing characteristics as a soft biomimetic magic carpet feedback sensor
are shown to have great potential for ubiquitous robot-human interactions (RHI). Upon
various types of deformation, they are shown to generate unique output voltage signals and
transient currents to be correlated to the actual magic carpet feedback force. Furthermore, a
flexible sheet of IPMC can be actuated simultaneously on the fly by a small power supply
embedded in the magic carpet. The magic carpet version of IPMC can be applied as smart
skin to develop human-like dexterous and soft manipulation.
Keywords
IPMCs, magic carpet, soft robotics
