Industry/University Cooperative Projects Center
| Agilent | COBE Cardiovascular | Ford Motor Company | Lockheed-Martin |
| Ball Aerospace | Coors | IBM | Micro Motion |
| Ball Packaging | CTD | ICAST | Nastic Actuator Development |
| Boeing | CONMED | Intel | Sikorsky |
Nastic Actuator Development
This project will be part of a larger research effort conducted by professors M. Dunn and K. Maute (Aero). This is the first time that we are trying to incorporate a research project into senior design. The project aims to develop a mechanism similar to a venus flytrap plant, i.e. develop a mechanism that produces relatively large deflections and large forces simultaneously.
The goal of this project is to develop a new class of active actuation material that can generate large strains while carrying significant structural loads. Super absorbent polymer (SAP) with distributed fluid active transport control mechanisms can be used to mimic a nastic plant system. The proposed actuator is a distributed hydraulic device aimed at matching the energy density of traditional hydraulic systems.
Without a centralized hydraulic pump, this hydraulic system is operated by distributed active control based on a novel electrochemical approach to transport working fluid.
The major thrust of the proposed project is integration of the following tasks:
- Demonstrate the ability to change the absorbability of a super absorbent polymer electrochemically to regulate the swelling/de-swelling and pressure to alter the cell size of a nastic structure.
- Demonstrate the ability of active transport based on electro-osmosis (EO) and electro-migration (EM) to move a fluid between two compartments across a membrane in a controlled and reversible manner.
Demonstrate actuation mechanisms and devices capable of generating axial extension/contraction and bending actuation, by incorporating the active transport control to actuate nastic structures.