STTR Phase I: An Actuated Skin for Robotic Facial Expressions

这项小型企业技术转移(STTR)第一阶段研究计划提出了一种驱动人造人类皮肤的新概念。由于缺乏足够的肌肉类技术，人造皮肤在机器人面部、假肢和医学模拟设备、动漫电子学和高端玩具等众多应用中的应用一直受到限制。解决这一问题的一种方案是一种新型的复合致动器，它是微压电致动器和多孔弹性体的混合体，它将显示出天然肌肉组织的几个特征。这些进展的关键是一种名为结构多孔性弹性体制造(SPEM)的新技术。其目的是确定多孔弹性体孔结构对材料性能的影响，利用这一认识优化多孔网络，通过开发快速成型和注射成型工艺的组合来制造弹性体中优化的孔结构，识别将压电致动器嵌入到多孔弹性体中所需的合成问题，并制造与新型运动控制电子设备集成的机器人表面来驱动微压电致动器和超声波马达。本研究将导致对作为人造肌肉的压电驱动结构化多孔弹性体复合材料致动器及其制造技术和包括驱动器、布线和锚定在内的支撑技术的基本理解。这一理解将有助于生产一系列以肌肉方式驱动的生物启发的机械设备。利用微型机器人夹爪阵列将三维牺牲材料的快速成型与压电致动器微阵列相结合，将为活性合成软组织的大规模生产提供一种实用的解决方案。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research program proposes a novel concept for actuating artificial human-like skin. The application of the artificial skin in numerous applications such as robotic faces, prosthetics and medical simulation devices, animatronics, and high-end toys has been limited because of the lack of adequate muscle-like technologies. A solution to this problem is a novel composite actuator, a hybrid of micro piezoelectric actuators and a porous elastomer which will exhibit several characteristics of natural muscle tissues. The key to these advances is a new technique called structured porosity elastomer manufacturing (SPEM). The objectives are to determine the effect of pore geometry on the material properties in porous elastomers, use this understanding for optimization of the porous network, to fabricate the optimized pore-structure in elastomers by developing a hybrid of rapid-prototyping and injection molding processes, to identify the synthesis issues required for embedding of the piezoelectric actuators in the porous elastomer, and to fabricate the robotic face integrated with novel motion control electronics for driving micro piezoelectric actuators and ultrasonic motors.This research will lead to the fundamental understanding of piezo-actuated structured porous elastomer composite actuators as artificial muscles, their manufacturing technologies, and supporting technologies including drivers, wiring and anchoring. This understanding will be helpful in producing a wide array of bio-inspired mechanical devices that are actuated in the manner of muscles. The development of hybrid of rapid-prototyping of 3D sacrificial material and micro-arrays of piezoactuators, by means of micro-robotic gripper arrayswill provide a practical solution for mass production of active, synthetic soft tissues.