Temperature self-sensing and closed-loop position control of twisted and coiled actuator

•A temperature self-sensing method of twisted and coiled artificial muscles is proposed.•The self-sensing function is used for the semi-closed loop position control system without external sensors.•A dual closed-loop control system based on the self-sensing function is implemented.•The performance o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors and actuators. A. Physical. 2019-01, Vol.285, p.319-328
Main Authors: Tang, Xintian, Li, Kai, Chen, Weishan, Zhou, Dong, Liu, Shenghui, Zhao, Jianguo, Liu, Yingxiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuation
Actuators
Artificial muscle
Closed loop systems
Closed loops
Coiling
Control systems
Detection
Muscles
Muscular system
Nickel
Polymers
Position control
Position sensing
Prostheses
Remote sensing
Self-sensing
Temperature
Temperature sensing
Temperature sensors
Twisting
Wire
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Summary:•A temperature self-sensing method of twisted and coiled artificial muscles is proposed.•The self-sensing function is used for the semi-closed loop position control system without external sensors.•A dual closed-loop control system based on the self-sensing function is implemented.•The performance of dual closed-loop control system is tested to be better than single closed-loop control. Twisted and coiled actuator (TCA), which is a newly discovered artificial muscle made by twisting and coiling polymer fibers into spring-like structures, can generate great contraction or expansion when heated. The temperature plays an important role in the actuation of TCA since its temperature sensibility. However, it is usually hard to measure the temperature of TCA directly with conventional temperature sensors due to its small radial dimension. A newly developed temperature self-sensing method of TCA is used in this work. Nickel wire, whose resistance varies linearly with the temperature, is combined with the polymer fiber of TCA by twisting and coiling them together. Therefore, the temperature of TCA is evaluated approximately via the resistance of the nickel wire. Based on the temperature self-sensing function, a semi-closed loop position control system without external sensor and a temperature and position dual closed-loop control system which responses 50% faster than the single closed-loop control system are implemented. These works add the temperature self-sensing function to TCA and facilitate its applications especially in small and soft devices.
ISSN:0924-4247
1873-3069
DOI:10.1016/j.sna.2018.11.040