Abstract
Ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) possess both structural and actuation properties, which makes them suitable for use in self-actuated compliant mechanisms. One limitation of IPMCs is that they can only bend with constant curvature along their length and this necessitates segmentation and individual control of each segment to realize compliant mechanisms for more complex motion. We have proposed a method of connecting adjacent segments of a multi-segment IPMC compliant mechanism so that they can bend with opposite curvature from the same electric source. Using this new ability, we have proposed and tested three different compliant mechanisms for wing-like motion, internally actuated bi-stable beam and a linear actuator, which were all controlled with a single input signal and would have otherwise required segmentation and individual control of each segment.
