Thermodynamically-informed Air-based Soft Heat Engine Design
Thermodynamically-informed Air-based Soft Heat Engine Design
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发表时间：
2021-03
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通讯作者：
Charles Xiao;Luke F. Gockowski;Bolin Liao;M. Valentine;E. Hawkes
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作者：
Charles Xiao;Luke F. Gockowski;Bolin Liao;M. Valentine;E. Hawkes
软质热机由于其易于集成到软结构和低电压电源要求，有望在未来的软机器人中发挥重要作用。最近的工作表明，软热发动机依赖于液体到气体相变材料。然而，尽管许多软机器人将空气作为主要成分，但软空气循环并不是该领域的焦点。在本文中，我们发展的理论，空气为基础的软热发动机的设计和效率，并通过实验证明，效率可以提高通过仔细的循环设计。我们比较了一个简单的恒定负载循环设计的递减负载循环，灵感来自奥托循环。虽然这两种效率都相对较低，但奥托式循环将效率提高了11.3倍，证明了这种方法的前景。我们的研究结果奠定了基础的发展空气为基础的软热发动机作为一个新的选择，为软机器人提供动力。
Soft heat engines are poised to play a vital role in future soft robots due to their easy integration into soft structures and low-voltage power requirements. Recent works have demonstrated soft heat engines relying on liquid-to-gas phase change materials. However, despite the fact that many soft robots have air as a primary component, soft air cycles are not a focus of the field. In this paper, we develop theory for airbased soft heat engines design and efficiency, and demonstrate experimentally that efficiency can be improved through careful cycle design. We compare a simple constant-load cycle to a designed decreasing-load cycle, inspired by the Otto cycle. While both efficiencies are relatively low, the Otto-like cycle improves efficiency by a factor of 11.3, demonstrating the promise of this approach. Our results lay the foundation for the development of air-based soft heat engines as a new option for powering soft robots.