Power for Robotic Artificial Muscles
Power for Robotic Artificial Muscles
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DOI：
10.1109/tmech.2010.2090894
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发表时间：
2011-02-01
影响因子：
6.4
通讯作者：
Melhuish, Chris
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Anderson, Iain A.;Ieropoulos, Ioannis A.;Melhuish, Chris
基于电介质弹性体驱动器（DEA）的人工肌肉是一种具有吸引力的自主机器人技术。我们目前正在探索它们在EcoBot（生态机器人）上的用途，EcoBot是布里斯托机器人实验室正在开发的一种使用微生物燃料电池（MFC）的自主机器人。DEA将为燃料电池维护和其他目标提供致动器，并将通过更高的机械效率和减少质量来增加活动使命时间。人造肌肉使用高电压，正常运行需要电压转换器将输送的电荷电压提高数百倍。介电弹性体发生器（DEG）与最近开发的自吸电路（SPC）一起使用时，可以直接向人工肌肉系统提供高压电源。SPC还可以使用来自另一个能量收集器（例如MFC组或太阳能电池阵列）的初始低压充电来启动。这种组合可能会为机器人人工肌肉带来完全自主的电源。我们展示了一个概念验证的便携式自启动DEG从移动树枝收获风能。
Artificial muscles based on the dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) are an attractive technology for autonomous robotic systems. We are currently exploring their use on EcoBot (Ecological roBot), an autonomous robot being developed by Bristol Robotics Lab that uses microbial fuel cells (MFCs). DEA will provide actuators for fuel cell maintenance and other goals and will increase active mission time through greater mechanical efficiency and reduced mass. Artificial muscles use high voltages and running them normally requires voltage converters to boost the voltage on delivered charge several hundred times. A dielectric elastomer generator (DEG) when used with a recently developed self-priming circuit (SPC) can supply the high-voltage power directly to artificial muscle systems. The SPC can also be started using an initial low-voltage charge from another energy harvester such as a bank of MFCs or a solar cell array. This combination could lead to a completely autonomous power source for robotic artificial muscles. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept portable self-primed DEG for harvesting wind energy from moving tree branches.