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他们行为的有效方法。另一种引导活电鳗远离危险的方法可能是使用自我控制的生物启发机器人发出电脉冲信号。本项目将侧重于了解这种方法的可行性。这项研究项目将与韩国高级科学技术研究所的吴日权博士合作进行，他专门从事智能材料、人造肌肉和仿生设备领域的研究。具体地说，该项目将探索基于智能材料的人造电子器官。将对离子聚合物金属复合材料(IPMC)和高功率石墨烯微超级电容器进行研究。这项研究试图利用这种智能材料来复制电鳗中看到的高压脉冲。作为对叠层电池中离子泵功能的机电类比，使用电池进行并列充电的IPMC片可以模拟电势的建立。或者，在石墨烯覆盖的平面结构之间夹着电解胶的石墨烯微超级电容器也可能在充电时将离子拉开。此外，还将对电鳗进行电特性测试，以进行比较。定制的数据采集设备将记录电鳗的放电情况，以获得人造电子器官的高分辨率参考。本项目将为构建仿生机器鳗在电鳗动物行为研究中的应用做出贡献。该NSF EAPSI奖是与韩国国家研究基金会合作资助的。

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.