EAPSI: Development of an artificial electric organ using smart materials

电鳗或弱电鱼的种群可能经常面临人为危险或自然灾害，如水污染、热带气旋或石油泄漏。使用固定装置的电脉冲已被证明是影响其行为的有效方法。另一种引导活电鳗远离危险的方法可能涉及到自我控制的生物启发机器人发出电脉冲信号。本项目将着重于了解这种方法的可行性。该研究项目将与韩国科学技术院（kaist）专攻智能材料、人造肌肉、仿生装置等领域的吴一权博士共同进行。具体来说，这个项目将探索基于智能材料的人工电器官。离子聚合物金属复合材料（IPMC）和大功率石墨烯微型超级电容器将被研究。这项研究试图利用这种智能材料来复制电鳗的高压脉冲。作为堆叠式电细胞中离子泵功能的机电类比，使用电池并联堆叠的IPMC片可以模拟电位的积累。另外，在石墨烯涂层的平面结构之间夹上电解凝胶的石墨烯微型超级电容器也可能在带电时将离子拉开。此外，将对电鳗进行电气特性测试以进行比较。定制的数据采集设备将记录电鳗的放电，以获得人造电器官的高分辨率参考。本课题将为建立一种仿生机器人鳗鱼，并将其应用于电鳗的动物行为研究。美国国家科学基金会EAPSI奖与韩国国家研究基金会合作资助。

Populations of electric eel or weakly electric fish may often face man-made dangers or natural disasters like water pollution, tropical cyclones, or oil spills. The use of electrical impulses using stationary devices has been shown to be an effective method to influence their behavior. An alternative approach to steer live electric eels away from danger may involve self-controlled biologically-inspired robots signaling electrical impulses. This project will focus on understanding the feasibility of such an approach. This research project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Il-Kwon Oh at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who specializes in the areas of smart materials, artificial muscles, and biomimetic devices.Specifically, this project will explore artificial electric organs based on smart materials. Ionic polymer metal composites (IPMC) and high-power graphene micro-supercapacitors will be investigated. This research seeks to utilize such smart materials to replicate the high voltage pulses seen in electric eels. As an electromechanical analogy to the function of ion pumps in stacked electrocytes, the IPMC sheets stacked in parallel charged using a battery can simulate the buildup of electrical potential. Alternatively, a graphene micro-supercapacitor sandwiching an electrolytic gel between graphene-coated planar structures may also pull the ions apart when charged. Further, electrical characterization tests on electric eels will be conducted for comparison. A custom data-acquisition device will record the electrical discharges of an electric eel to obtain a high-resolution reference for the artificial electric organ. This project will contribute to build a biomimetic robotic eel for the application in animal behavior research on electric eels. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the National Research Foundation of Korea.