Research for Artificial Muscle Manipulator using 1ms High-speed Visual Feedback

人造肌肉是一种离子聚合物-金属复合材料（IPMC），它是由表面镀金的高分子凝胶膜制成的。我们的目标是实现仿生软机器人，例如蛇形游泳机器人或多自由度微型机器人机械手。为了实现蛇形或多自由度的弯曲运动，我们在执行器表面切割电极，以单独控制每个部分。我们已经开发了各种各样的运动从这个模式的执行器，包括蛇形运动。我们还提出了机械臂的运动学建模，简单地描述了人工肌肉的各种多自由度运动。将该模型应用于机械臂系统的视觉反馈控制中，采用雅可比控制方法。对于反馈控制，我们开发了一种使用1ms高速视觉系统的视觉传感系统，该系统具有足够快的响应速度来捕捉执行器的快速运动。我们还通过寻找最佳电压、相位和频率，使器件自由地向前和向后游动。另一方面，我们研究了高压水环境下IPMC人工肌肉的弯曲响应，未来将应用于深海执行器和机器人。与电动马达相比，人造肌肉有一个优势，因为它们不需要与水隔绝，这在高压水环境中很难做到。从实验中发现，这与正常水压下几乎没有区别。

An artificial muscle is an ionic polymer-metal composite(IPMC) which is made out of a high polymer gel film whose surface is plated with gold. Our goal is to realize bio-inspired soft robots, for example, a snake-like swimming robot or multi-degree-of-freedom(DOF) micro-robot manipulator.To realize a snake-like or a multi-DOF bending motion, we cut electrodes on the surface of the actuator in order to control each segment individually. We have developed a variety of motions from this patterned actuator including a snake-like motion. We have also proposed kinematic modeling of the manipulator which simply describes various multi-DOF motions of the artificial muscle. This model is applied to visual feedback control of the manipulator system using a Jacobian control method. For the feedback control, we have developed a visual sensing system using a 1ms high-speed vision system which has a fast enough response to capture the fast actuator motion. We have also made the device swim freely forward and backward by finding the optimal voltage, phase and frequency.On the other hand, we have investigated the bending response of an IPMC artificial muscle in high-pressure water environments, with future applications in deep-sea actuators and robots. The artificial muscles have an advantage over electric motors because they do not need sealing from water, which is difficult in high-pressure water environments. From experiments, there was found to be almost no difference with that at normal water pressure.