Novel Vanadium Dioxide-based Self-Sensing Microactuators: Modeling, Control, and Application to Micromanipulation

本计画的研究目标为探讨二氧化钒微致动器的建模与控制方法，以实现对这些致动器的强健、精确与有效的控制。二氧化钒是一种智能材料，其独特的驱动潜力直到最近才被注意到，并且它具有高体积能量密度、上级耐久性和优异的可重复性的优点。然而，明显的滞后从相变，连同复杂的，耦合的电-热-机械动力学，提出了重大的挑战，在控制的二氧化钒为基础的微致动器。该研究方法包括创建一个模型，以高保真度和最小的复杂性捕获跨多个物理域的滞后，开发用于自感知和控制具有非单调滞后的系统的算法，设计和制造基于二氧化钒的多自由度微操作器，并通过实验验证所开发的建模和控制方法。通过利用控制理论和新型致动材料之间的协同作用，该项目将提高这两方面的技术水平。如果成功，该奖项的结果将有助于实现基于二氧化钒的执行器在显微外科手术，微机器人，存储技术和微组装等领域的全部潜力，对生物技术和微/纳米制造产生积极影响。除了丰富课程外，该项目还将为研究生和本科生提供独特的跨学科培训机会。 这两个PI在招募和指导女性和少数民族学生方面都有很好的记录，共同PI本人是西班牙裔学生的成功榜样。将开展一些外联活动，吸引K-12学生和公众，激发他们对科学和工程的兴趣。这些活动的例子包括教师培训，互动演示，和？与微星共舞？学生们扮演舞蹈设计师，制作二氧化钒涂层的微型杠杆阵列？跳舞？通过激光扫描编程来播放音乐。

The research objective of this project is to investigate modeling and control methods for vanadium dioxide-based microactuators, to enable robust, precise, and efficient control of these actuators. Vanadium dioxide is a smart material, whose unique actuation potential has not been noticed until recently, and it has advantages of high volumetric energy density, superior durability, and excellent repeatability. However, pronounced hysteresis from phase transition, together with sophisticated, coupled electro-thermo-mechanical dynamics, presents significant challenges in the control of vanadium dioxide-based microactuators. The research approach consists of creating a model that captures hysteresis across multiple physical domains with high fidelity and minimal complexity, developing algorithms for self-sensing and for controlling systems with non-monotonic hysteresis, designing and fabricating vanadium dioxide-based multi degree-of-freedom micromanipulators, and experimentally validating the developed modeling and control methods.By exploiting the synergy between control theory and novel actuation materials, the project will advance the state of the art in both. If successful, the results from this award will facilitate the realization of the full potential of vanadium dioxide-based actuators in areas such as microsurgery, microrobotics, memory technology, and microassembly, with positive impact on biotechnology and micro/nano-manufacturing. Besides curriculum enrichment, the project will provide unique interdisciplinary training opportunities for graduate and undergrad students. Both PIs have a strong track record in recruiting and advising female and minority students, with the co-PI himself being a successful role model for Hispanic students. A number of outreach activities will be developed to engage K-12 students and the public, to pique their interest in science and engineering. Examples of these activities include teacher training, interactive demos, and ?dancing with the micro stars?, where students act as choreographers and make arrays of vanadium dioxide-coated micro-cantilevers ?dance? to music through laser scan programming.