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Actuators, Volume 9, Issue 4

2020 December - 50 articles

Cover Story: Recently, great progress has been made in materials science in terms of the development of new materials with advanced functionalities. The robotics community has paid particular interest to active soft materials for their potential as transducers responding to various stimuli aiming to produce mechanical work. The present review targets encompassing and rationalizing a framework that will help a wider scientific audience to understand, sort, and design future soft actuators and methods enabling complex motions. In this context, a challenging overview of the new materials, as well as their classification and comparison (performances and characteristics), is presented. A series of manufacturing methods are described and compared. The review concludes by considering the future challenges of the field, from materials science and microrobotics points of view. View this paper.
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Articles (50)

  • Review
  • Open Access
84 Citations
15,314 Views
30 Pages

19 December 2020

Traditional rigid robot application in the medical field is limited due to the limited degrees of freedom caused by their material and structure. Inspired by trunk, tentacles, and snakes, continuum robot (CR) could traverse confined space, manipulate...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook)
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
7,623 Views
16 Pages

18 December 2020

Inspired by improving the adaptive capability of the robot to external impacts or shocks, the adjustable stiffness behavior in joints is investigated to ensure conformity with the safety index. This paper proposes a new soft actuation unit, namely Ad...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Fluid Power Systems and Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
33 Citations
4,685 Views
13 Pages

Performance of TMDI for Tall Building Damping

  • Felix Weber,
  • Peter Huber,
  • Fredrik Borchsenius and
  • Christian Braun

15 December 2020

This study investigates the vibration reduction of tall wind-excited buildings using a tuned mass damper (TMD) with an inerter (TMDI). The performance of the TMDI is computed as a function of the floor to which the inerter is grounded as this paramet...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actuators and Dampers for Vibration Control: Damping and Isolation Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,498 Views
21 Pages

Microgripper Based on Simple Compliance Configurations, Improved by Using Parameterization

  • Pedro Vargas-Chable,
  • Jose Mireles Jr-Garcia,
  • Sahiril Fernanda Rodriguez-Fuentes,
  • Samuel Isai Valle-Morales and
  • Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres

15 December 2020

The design of a novel electrothermal microgripper device is shown, which is based on an improved chevron type actuator developed considering their elements parameterization, whose resistive model is also provided. The performance of the microgripper&...

(This article belongs to the Section Precision Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
5,237 Views
13 Pages

11 December 2020

Template-based and additive manufacturing techniques have demonstrated some fabrication routes for creating pneumatic soft actuators. However, as the complexity and capability of the actuators continue to develop, the limitations of these approaches...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pneumatic Soft Actuators)
  • Review
  • Open Access
9 Citations
5,811 Views
24 Pages

11 December 2020

While many natural instances of adhesion between cells and biological macromolecules have been elucidated, understanding how to mimic these adhesion events remains to be a challenge. Discovering new biointerface materials that can provide an appropri...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Medical Instruments)
  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
8,472 Views
16 Pages

Design and Evaluation of a Pediatric Lower-Limb Exoskeleton Joint Actuator

  • Anthony Goo,
  • Curt A. Laubscher,
  • Ryan J. Farris and
  • Jerzy T. Sawicki

11 December 2020

Lower-limb exoskeletons have undergone significant developments for aiding in the ambulation of adults with gait impairment. However, advancements in exoskeletons for the pediatric population have comparatively been lacking. This paper presents a new...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Robotics)
  • Article
  • Open Access
36 Citations
5,526 Views
14 Pages

10 December 2020

The pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA) has been widely applied in the researches of rehabilitation robotic devices for its high power to weight ratio and intrinsic compliance in the past decade. However, the high nonlinearity and hysteresis behavior of...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Medical Instruments)
  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,326 Views
19 Pages

A Robust Method Based on Dual Encoders to Eliminate Velocity Ripple for Modular Drive Joints

  • Qiang Xin,
  • Chin-Yin Chen,
  • Chongchong Wang,
  • Guilin Yang and ,
  • Chi Zhang,
  • Zaojun Fang and
  • Chun Lung Philip Chen
  • + 2 authors+ 0 author

10 December 2020

Velocity ripple is one of the common problems of modular drive joints, which easily induces vibration and noise and affects motion accuracy. In order to improve the motion control accuracy, a robust method based on dual encoders to eliminate velocity...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Robotics)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
9,128 Views
16 Pages

9 December 2020

A voice coil motor is a simple and linear electromagnetic actuator. Since it has a non-contact force and very low stiffness, it is widely used for precision positioning devices including magnetic levitation systems. During magnetic levitation, high f...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Levitation Actuators)
  • Review
  • Open Access
44 Citations
10,459 Views
44 Pages

Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

  • Gilles Decroly,
  • Antoniya Toncheva,
  • Loïc Blanc,
  • Jean-Marie Raquez and ,
  • Thomas Lessinnes,
  • Alain Delchambre and
  • Pierre Lambert
  • + 2 authors+ 0 author

5 December 2020

During the last years, great progress was made in material science in terms of concept, design and fabrication of new composite materials with conferred properties and desired functionalities. The scientific community paid particular interest to acti...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
4,808 Views
21 Pages

5 December 2020

This paper proposes a fault estimation and fault-tolerant control strategy with two observers for a pump-controlled electro-hydraulic system (PCEHS) under the presence of internal leakage faults and an external loading force. The mathematical model o...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Fluid Power Systems and Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
5,359 Views
13 Pages

Hydraulic Switching Control Supplementing Speed Variable Hydraulic Drives

  • Philipp Zagar,
  • Helmut Kogler,
  • Rudolf Scheidl and
  • Bernd Winkler

4 December 2020

Primary control of linear motion by variable speed electric motors driving a hydraulic cylinder via a constant displacement pump is an established and successful concept with a frequent use in industry. One problem arises when low or zero motion spee...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Hydraulic Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,052 Views
16 Pages

4 December 2020

Hydraulic linear actuators dominate in high power applications but are much less common in low power (<100 W) systems. One reason for this is the cost: electric actuators in this power range generally exhibit lower performance but are also much le...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Hydraulic Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,938 Views
14 Pages

Improvement of Comfort in Suspension Seats with a Pneumatic Negative Stiffness System

  • Eduardo Palomares,
  • Angel L. Morales,
  • Antonio J. Nieto,
  • Jose M. Chicharro and
  • Publio Pintado

3 December 2020

This paper presents a Negative Stiffness System (NSS) for vibration isolation and comfort improvement of vehicle seats, which enhances the performance of optimized traditional passive seat suspensions. The NSS is based on a set of two Pneumatic Linea...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actuators and Dampers for Vibration Control: Damping and Isolation Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
4,473 Views
22 Pages

3 December 2020

This paper proposes the implementation of an assisting technology to a processing/reprocessing mechatronics line (P/RML), comprising the following: two autonomous robotic systems (ARSs), two robotic manipulators (RMs) and three visual servoing system...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Robotics)
  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,614 Views
20 Pages

3 December 2020

This paper addresses diagnosis and prognosis problems for an electric scooter subjected to parameter uncertainties and compound faults (i.e., permanent fault and intermittent fault with non-monotonic degradation). First, the diagnostic bond graph in...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Surface Vehicles)
  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,038 Views
11 Pages

30 November 2020

A piezoelectric motor driven by the first-order torsional and first-order flexural (T/F) vibrations is designed, fabricated, and tested in this study. The actuating force is generated by the torsional vibration of the dumbbell-shaped vibrator, while...

(This article belongs to the Section High Torque/Power Density Actuators)
  • Communication
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,146 Views
8 Pages

30 November 2020

The control of tendon-driven actuators is mainly affected by the tendon behavior under stress or strain. The measurement of these parameters on artificial tendons brings benefits on the control and novel approaches for soft robotics actuators. This p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
5,446 Views
18 Pages

28 November 2020

Since the energy crisis, the further development of a variable speed pump-controlled hydraulic system driven by an electric machine has attracted increasing attention during the past few years. As a response to this, an innovative double pump-control...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Hydraulic Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,333 Views
16 Pages

27 November 2020

The aircraft hydraulic system is very important for the actuation system and its failure has led to a number of catastrophic accidents in the past few years. The reasons for hydraulic loss can be leakage, blockage, and structural damage. Fortunately,...

(This article belongs to the Section Aerospace Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,630 Views
21 Pages

26 November 2020

This paper presents a new accurate multiple model of nonlinear pneumatic lateral forces. The bicycle representation is used in order to build up an easy implemented vehicle dynamic model. Moreover, the Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy approach is applied in...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Surface Vehicles)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,422 Views
16 Pages

26 November 2020

A metalized plastic capacitor stands a higher chance to clear faults when embodied with thinner electrodes. However, it is not clear whether the same thickness effect applies to carbon-based compliant electrodes in clearing the defects in dielectric...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs))
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,583 Views
20 Pages

On-Line Modal Parameter Identification Applied to Linear and Nonlinear Vibration Absorbers

  • Luis Gerardo Trujillo-Franco,
  • Gerardo Silva-Navarro,
  • Francisco Beltran-Carbajal,
  • Eduardo Campos-Mercado and
  • Hugo Francisco Abundis-Fong

25 November 2020

A solution of the vibration attention problem on a flexible structure from a dynamic vibration absorption perspective is experimentally and numerically studied in this article. Linear and nonlinear dynamic vibration absorbers are properly implemented...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actuators for System Identification, Vibration Analysis, and Control)
  • Article
  • Open Access
44 Citations
5,233 Views
14 Pages

24 November 2020

Due to the time-varying nonlinear dynamic, uncertain model and hysteresis characteristics of the pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) actuator, it is not easy to apply model-based control algorithms for monitoring, as well as controlling, the operation...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Medical Instruments)
  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
3,834 Views
20 Pages

On-Line Open-Phase Fault Detection Method for Switched Reluctance Motors with Bus Current Measurement

  • Alejandra de la Guerra,
  • Victor M. Jimenez-Mondragon,
  • Lizeth Torres,
  • Rafael Escarela-Perez and
  • Juan C. Olivares-Galvan

16 November 2020

This article introduces an on-line fault diagnosis (FD) system to detect and recognize open-phase faults in switched reluctance motors (SRMs). Both tasks, detection and recognition, are based on functions built with the same information but from diff...

(This article belongs to the Section Precision Actuators)
  • Review
  • Open Access
38 Citations
8,498 Views
19 Pages

14 November 2020

Hybrid stimuli-responsive soft robots have been extensively developed by incorporating multi-functional materials, such as carbon-based nanoparticles, nanowires, low-dimensional materials, and liquid crystals. In addition to the general functions of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,610 Views
14 Pages

14 November 2020

An electropermanent magnet (EM) can be fixed or rotated without applying the additional power of a wobble motor. This consists of a neodymium magnet and semi-hard magnet. A model to design a wobble motor for a wobble gripper without finite element an...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Robotics)
  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
6,467 Views
17 Pages

A Miniaturized Dual-Slider Linear Actuator Using Electrostatic Adhesion and Inertia Drive

  • Xian Song,
  • Hongqiang Wang,
  • Yangkun Zhang,
  • Wenming Liu and ,
  • Li Liu and
  • Yuxin Peng
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

12 November 2020

Dual-slider positioning in a miniaturized system is crucial in many industrial applications. This paper presents a miniaturized dual-slider linear actuator by employing one piezoelectric element (PZT) and integrating the methods of electrostatic adhe...

(This article belongs to the Section Precision Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
5,549 Views
20 Pages

Design Methodology for a Novel Bending Pneumatic Soft Actuator for Kinematically Mirroring the Shape of Objects

  • Michele Gabrio Antonelli,
  • Pierluigi Beomonte Zobel,
  • Walter D’Ambrogio and
  • Francesco Durante

10 November 2020

In the landscape of Industry 4.0, advanced robotics awaits a growing use of bioinspired adaptive and flexible robots. Collaborative robotics meets this demand. Due to human–robot coexistence and interaction, the safety, the first requirement to...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Robotics)
  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,787 Views
17 Pages

9 November 2020

A compact and flexible hydraulic double-cylinder actuation scheme is proposed for use in applications, especially where power density is extremely demanding. In view of flexible amounting requirements, long and thin hoses were utilized to connect two...

(This article belongs to the Section High Torque/Power Density Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,624 Views
14 Pages

5 November 2020

Microfluidic structures and devices have been studied over decades for the transport of liquid through internal channels using versatile microfabrication schemes such as surface and bulk micromachining technologies. One challenge in consideration of...

(This article belongs to the Section Miniaturized and Micro Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,720 Views
16 Pages

5 November 2020

In order to build a motion system with high resolution, fast response, and long travel range in a probe station, a linear ultrasonic motor was investigated as an alternative to the electromagnetic counterpart in a servo system. This work focused on a...

(This article belongs to the Section Miniaturized and Micro Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
5,635 Views
14 Pages

Wireless Walking Paper Robot Driven by Magnetic Polymer Actuator

  • Han-Sol Lee,
  • Yong-Uk Jeon,
  • In-Seong Lee,
  • Jin-Yong Jeong and ,
  • Manh Cuong Hoang,
  • Ayoung Hong,
  • Eunpyo Choi,
  • Jong-Oh Park and
  • Chang-Sei Kim
  • + 4 authors+ 0 author

30 October 2020

Untethered small-scale soft robots have been widely researched because they can be employed to perform wireless procedures via natural orifices in the human body, or other minimally invasive operations. Nevertheless, achieving untethered robotic moti...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Miniature and Micro-Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,287 Views
21 Pages

Vibration Isolation and Alignment of Multiple Platforms on a Non-Rigid Supporting Structure

  • Jorge Pérez-Aracil,
  • Emiliano Pereira,
  • Sumeet S. Aphale and
  • Paul Reynolds

22 October 2020

In many applications comprised of multiple platforms with stringent vibration isolation requirements, several vibration isolators are employed to work in tandem. They usually must accomplish two objectives: (i) reduce the vibration level of each plat...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Actuators and Dampers for Vibration Control: Damping and Isolation Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
9,745 Views
18 Pages

21 October 2020

The soft actuator possesses the characteristics of flexibility, environmental adaptability, and human–machine interaction. Firstly, aiming to resolve the limitation of variable stiffness performance of a traditional pneumatic artificial muscle...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pneumatic Soft Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
53 Citations
10,450 Views
19 Pages

20 October 2020

Implementation of a prototype of a 4-degree of freedom (4-DOF) upper-limb exoskeleton robot for rehabilitation was described in this paper. The proposed exoskeleton robot has three DOFs at the shoulder joint and one DOF at the elbow joint. The upper-...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pneumatic, Hybrid Pneumatic–Electric, and Vacuum-Powered Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
56 Citations
6,512 Views
22 Pages

16 October 2020

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells demonstrate potential as a comprehensive and general alternative to fossil fuel. They are also considered to be the energy source of the twenty-first century. However, fuel cell systems have non-linear ou...

(This article belongs to the Section High Torque/Power Density Actuators)
  • Review
  • Open Access
185 Citations
22,122 Views
33 Pages

A Review of Jamming Actuation in Soft Robotics

  • Seth G. Fitzgerald,
  • Gary W. Delaney and
  • David Howard

15 October 2020

Jamming is a popular and versatile soft robotic mechanism, enabling new systems to be developed that can achieve high stiffness variation with minimal volume variation. Numerous applications have been reported, including deep-sea sampling, industrial...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook)
  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
4,152 Views
16 Pages

Admittance-Controlled Teleoperation of a Pneumatic Actuator: Implementation and Stability Analysis

  • Naghmeh Garmsiri,
  • Yuming Sun,
  • Pooya Sekhavat,
  • Cai Xia Yang and
  • Nariman Sepehri

14 October 2020

Implementation, experimental evaluation and stability analysis of an admittance-controlled teleoperated pneumatic system is presented. A master manipulator navigates a pneumatic slave actuation, which interacts with a human arm as an environment. Con...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pneumatic, Hybrid Pneumatic–Electric, and Vacuum-Powered Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
5,543 Views
14 Pages

13 October 2020

The work here described aims to offer a starting point for improving and making a generic maintenance process more efficient, first of all thanks to the use of a cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality, as a key tool that makes it possible...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Manufacturing Systems)
  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
3,468 Views
16 Pages

Inter-Particle Effects with a Large Population in Acoustofluidics

  • Kun Jia,
  • Yulong Wang,
  • Liqiang Li,
  • Jian Chen and
  • Keji Yang

10 October 2020

The ultrasonic manipulation of cells and bioparticles in a large population is a maturing technology. There is an unmet demand for improved theoretical understanding of the particle–particle interactions at a high concentration. In this study,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
20 Citations
4,511 Views
10 Pages

Acoustic and Flow Aspects of Novel Synthetic Jet Actuator

  • Emil Smyk,
  • Paweł Gil,
  • Rafał Gałek and
  • Łukasz Przeszłowski

9 October 2020

The acoustic and flow aspects of the novel synthetic jet actuator (SJA) with fins inside the cavity were experimentally investigated for three types of enclosure design and two models of loudspeaker. The aim of the study is to find the parameter whic...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,663 Views
19 Pages

7 October 2020

This paper describes an exact linearizing control approach for a distributed actuation magnetic bearing (DAMB) supporting a thin-walled rotor. The radial DAMB design incorporates a circular array of compact electromagnetic actuators with multi-coil w...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electromagnetic Levitation Actuators)
  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,539 Views
20 Pages

LPV-Based Controller Design of a Floating Piston Pneumatic Actuator

  • Ádám Szabó,
  • Tamás Bécsi,
  • Szilárd Aradi and
  • Péter Gáspár

5 October 2020

The paper presents the modeling and control design of a floating piston pneumatic gearbox actuator using a grid-based Linear Parameter Varying approach. First, the nonlinear model of the pneumatic actuator is presented, then it is transformed into a...

(This article belongs to the Section Actuators for Surface Vehicles)
  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
4,969 Views
25 Pages

Capacitive Accelerometers with Beams Based on Alternated Segments of Different Widths

  • Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres,
  • Pedro Vargas-Chable,
  • Josue Osvaldo Sandoval-Reyes,
  • Sahiril Fernanda Rodriguez-Fuentes and
  • Ramon Cabello-Ruiz

1 October 2020

Microelectromechanical (MEM) Accelerometers measure the accelerations or vibrations experienced by objects due to inertial forces or mechanical excitations. To improve their proof mass displacement, several alternatives have been used, such as the de...

(This article belongs to the Section Miniaturized and Micro Actuators)
  • Perspective
  • Open Access
54 Citations
10,884 Views
11 Pages

Biohybrid Actuators for Soft Robotics: Challenges in Scaling Up

  • Phillip Won,
  • Seung Hwan Ko,
  • Carmel Majidi,
  • Adam W. Feinberg and
  • Victoria A. Webster-Wood

30 September 2020

Living systems have evolved to survive in a wide range of environments and safely interact with other objects and organisms. Thus, living systems have been the source of inspiration for many researchers looking to apply their mechanics and unique cha...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook)
  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
11,308 Views
17 Pages

27 September 2020

This article describes the control of a rotary inverted pendulum utilizing on–off-type cold gas thrusters as the actuators, which have high similarities with thruster actuated spacecrafts with slosh dynamics. The study is completed in three pha...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pneumatic Actuators for Robotics and Automation)
  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
8,545 Views
29 Pages

25 September 2020

The work reported here was aimed at improving the practical efficiency of the model-based development and integration of electromechanical actuators. Models are proposed to serve as preliminary design, virtual prototyping, and validation. The first p...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers to Celebrate the SCIE Coverage)
  • Tutorial
  • Open Access
8 Citations
5,358 Views
42 Pages

23 September 2020

Physical properties of lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) ceramics change according to the initial electric poling process and electrical boundary conditions. This paper reports the electrothermal, piezothermal, and piezoelectric coupling phenomena in fer...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoelectric Actuators and Ultrasonic Motors: Future Perspectives)
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Actuators - ISSN 2076-0825