Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/robot

A bio-inspired multi degree of freedom actuator based on a novel cylindrical

ionic polymer–metal composite material
Seong J. Kim a,1 , David Pugal a , Johnson Wong a , Kwang J. Kim a,∗ , Woosoon Yim b
a
University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
b
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

article info abstract

Article history: In this work, we explore a promising electroactive polymer (EAP), called ionic polymer–metal composite
Available online 23 August 2012 (IPMC) as a material to use as a multi degree of freedom actuator. Configuration of our interest is
a cylindrical IPMC with 2-DOF electromechanical actuation capability. The desired functionality was
Keywords:
achieved by fabricating unique inter-digitated electrodes. First, a 3D finite element (FE) model was
Ionic polymer
introduced as a design tool to validate if the concept of cylindrical actuators would work. The FE model
Actuator
IPMC is based upon the physical transport processes—field induced migration and diffusion of ions. Second,
Finite element method based upon the FE modeling we fabricated a prototype exhibiting desired electromechanical output.
FEM The prototype of cylindrical IPMC has a diameter of 1 mm and a 20 mm length. We have successfully
demonstrated that the 2-DOF bending of the fabricated cylindrical IPMCs is feasible. Furthermore, the
experimental results have given new insight into the physics that is behind the actuation phenomenon
of IPMC.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction response of IPMC — it considers the cluster morphology of the

Ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) material is one of the
most promising active (smart) material for developing novel soft
biomimetic actuators and sensors [1–4]. It typically consists of an
ionomeric membrane that is coated with a thin layer of a noble
metal electrode, such as platinum. The advantages of the IPMC
include low driving voltage (<5 V), relatively large strain, soft
and flexible structure, and the ability to operate in an aqueous
environment (such as water). Due to the softness and flexibility of
the material, it can be used to mimic the flexible bending behavior
as seen in the nature. For instance, a number of robotic applications
based on the IPMCs have been proposed. Among others, the list
includes an active fish fin for propulsion with sophisticated control
model [5,6], jellyfish based on the soft materials [7], and snake-like
swimming robot [8].
A lot of effort has been put into formulating the electrome-
chanical theory of IPMC materials. Shahinpoor et al. developed a
non-homogeneous large deformation theory of ionic polymer gels
[9,10]. In 2000, De Gennes et al. presented the first phenomenolog-
ical theory of sensing and actuation of IPMCs [11]. Li and Nemat-
Nasser presented a fundamental model of electromechanical
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 775 784 7522; fax: +1 775 784 7522.
E-mail address: kwangkim@unr.edu (K.J. Kim).
1 Current address: Samsung Electronics, South Korea.
0921-8890/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.robot.2012.07.015
material [12]. In the follow-up work, the role of the hydrated
cation transport within the clusters and polymer network was
stressed [13]. Weiland and Leo presented a model where the indi-
vidual dipole rotations within a cluster were calculated and related
to the deformation of IPMC [14]. Akle et al. studied both numeri-
cally and experimentally large electrode surface area effect on the
induced current [15]. Wallmersperger et al. proposed a finite el-
ement model to incorporate these effects [16]. Porfiri studied the
charge dynamics and capacitance of IPMC [17]. Davidson and Goul-
bourne studied ionic liquid transport in the polymer and boundary
layer interactions on the actuation of IPMC [18,19]. A comprehen-
sive review of the state-of-the art understanding of IPMC materi-
als was written by Tiwari and Garcia [20]. Although the materials
have been extensively studied, some shortcomings still remain.
For instance, water solvent based IPMCs tend to dry off and lose
performance when actuated in air [21]. Also, back relaxation un-
der a DC applied voltage is observed in the case of typical solvent
cations such as Na+ , Li+ [22]. Regardless of the shortcomings, the
appealing mechanical properties make IPMCs promising materi-
als to be used in the biomedical field. Applications for active endo-
scopes [23] and smart catheters [24–26] have been proposed. Also,
strips of IPMCs can be used as sensors in hand prostheses [27].
Whereas the flat, beam-shaped IPMCs have been extensively
studied for different applications, cylindrical IPMCs have not yet
been investigated. This is primarily due to the difficulties related to
the fabrication process and a small deflection angle that is mainly
54 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60
Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of a cylindrical IPMC with four inter-digitated electrodes
(top) and illustrated actuation (bottom).
caused by the high mechanical rigidity. However, the cylindrical
IPMC is a promising candidate to be used as, for instance, an active
catheter platform if it can show 2-DOF actuation capability. A way
to achieve this is to inter-digitate the surface electrodes into 4
sections and apply appropriate combinations of input signals as
illustrated in Fig. 1.
Furthermore, different electrode configurations of the cylindri-
cal actuator possibly allow the undulatory actuation that is more
common in the nature [28,29].
In this study the 2-DOF actuation capabilities of the cylindrical
IPMCs was numerically simulated with a physics-based 3D
Finite Element (FE) model. The model simulates the important
underlying physical processes, including the ionic migration and
concentration of the cations inside the membrane. The results
helped to confirm beforehand that the concept of the cylindrical
IPMCs is feasible.
The cylindrical ionic polymers were fabricated using hot press-
ing process and the surface electrode of the IPMC was inter-digita-
ted by a mechanical process. Various methods to inter-digitate
flat IPMCs have been developed [30,31], however, we propose a
method to pattern the electrodes on the cylindrical IPMC.
The mechanical process is a significant upgrade compared to the
process discussed in [32] — namely, the new process results in very
clean cut electrodes compared to the previous method. As a result,
the experimental data including the bending angle and blocking
force of the 2-DOF bending of the cylindrical IPMC with a diameter
of 1 mm and a length of 20 mm are presented.
2. Initial FE analysis
Analysis on the geometry of the cylindrical IPMC and the
combination of the input signal were carried out using a 3D
FE model. The model is based on the calculations of the ionic
migration and diffusion, which are directly related to the bending
Table 1
Simulation constants.
Constant Value Unit
Diffusion constant D 12e−12 m2 /s
Dielectric permittivity ε 2e−3 F/m
Force coupling A 8e4 –
Force coupling B 6e7 –
of the IPMC. The cation concentration in the IPMC is calculated
using the system of Nernst Planck and Poisson equations [33]:
∂C
+ ∇ · (−D∇ C − z µFC ∇φ) = 0, (1)
∂t
Fρ
−∆ φ = , (2)
ε
where C is cation concentration; D diffusion constant; φ electric
potential; F the Faraday constant; µ mobility; and ε absolute
dielectric constant. In the initial analysis, the calculated local
charge density, ρ , was coupled to the local stress by using the force
relation [34]
Fx = Aρ 2 + Bρ, (3)
where Fx is a body force in the longitudinal direction. The de-
tailed model, including the details about the Navier’s equation is
described in [33]. The equations were implemented in COMSOL
Multiphysics software package. As a full calculation in a 3D domain
is very resource demanding, the Poisson–Nernst–Planck system of
equations was solved in a circular 2D domain where applied volt-
ages were used as the boundary condition for Eq. (2). In order to
minimize computational error, very fine mesh was used near the
electrode boundaries (for detailed explanation, see [35,36]). The
calculated cation concentration C was then extruded to a full-scale
3D domain where Eq. (3) was calculated. The main simulation con-
stants are shown in Table 1.
In this study, the diameter and the length of the actuator were
set to 1 mm and 20 mm, respectively. The 1 mm diameter was
chosen due to manufacturing considerations.
For a beam-shaped conventional IPMC the input signal is
rather straightforward because it simply bends toward the anode
(electrode where a positive voltage is applied) direction. In case
of a cylindrical IPMC, which has at least 4 independent electrodes,
the input signal can have more combinations to potentially actuate
in arbitrary number of different directions. However, given that
constant voltage signals are used to simplify the control of the
actuation, 8 different directions of can be achieved.
There are two ways of actuating the cylindrical IPMC in the
vertical/horizontal directions with constant voltage signals — three
positive signals and one positive signal as shown in Fig. 2. On the
other hand, there is only one way to actuate the cylindrical IPMC
in the diagonal direction, which is by applying positive signals to
coinciding electrodes.
A set of simulations was carried out for a cylindrical IPMC. The
results showed that the 8 directional bending is indeed possible.
The model predicted reasonable diagonal bending and the bending
in case of three positive signals. It is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.
However, the model was not able to estimate the bending in case
of one positive signal. The calculation results in case of 4 V applied
voltage are shown in Fig. 5.
The simulations results were sufficient to move onto the next
step, namely to fabricate and characterize the cylindrical IPMCs.
Thereafter, based on the experimental data, the force coupling
Eq. (3) was redefined and another set of simulations was carried
out. More calculated data are presented in Section 5 — results and
discussion.
 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60
Fig. 2. Definition of actuation directions and different actuation schemes for the
vertical/horizontal direction as for the diagonal direction.
Fig. 3. Simulated bending in the vertical/horizontal direction with three plus
electrodes. The dark red color indicates the positive voltage. (For interpretation
of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)
Fig. 4. Simulated bending in the diagonal direction. The dark red color indicates the
positive voltage. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
3. Fabrication
3.1. Cylindrical IPMC
IPMCs are typically fabricated by chemically depositing plat-
inum electrode layer on the surfaces of a commercially available
film-type ionic polymer [2]. In this study, the cylindrical ionic poly-
mer rods were fabricated in-house. The process is as follows. Ionic
polymer (Nafion, Dupont) beads are hot-pressed in a mold at 20.7
MPa for 30 min at an elevated temperature of 150 °C (3912, Carver
Hot Press). After the polymer is molded with a desired shape, an
55
Fig. 5. Initial calculation of the bending deflection for different applied signals (see
Fig. 2) using the force coupling in Eq. (3). 4 V actuation signals were used in this
simulation.
Fig. 6. Cross-section view of mold to make four bumps on cylindrical membrane
(a) and fabricated membrane having four bumps (b).
activation process is carried out before platinum electroless plating
process, since the Nafion beads does not have the cation-exchange
properties. The activation process is divided into two steps, hydrol-
ysis and acid conversion.
Hydrolysis: the membrane is hydrolyzed in a solution of KOH
at an elevated temperature. After the hydrolysis, the cations of the
membrane are in K+ form.
Acid conversion: the cations of the hydrolyzed membrane are
converted to H+ form in a 15% solution of HNO3 at the room tem-
perature for about 4 h.
Platinum electrode are deposited on the surface of the activated
cylindrical membrane using the typical platinum electroless
plating process [2]. Later the cations of the fabricated cylindrical
IPMC are exchanged to Li+ form in 1 M LiCl solution at the room
temperature for 4 h. All the chemicals in this study were obtained
from Sigma Aldrich.
3.2. Inter-digitated electrodes
As the inter-digitation of the surface electrode on the cylindrical
IPMC with diameter of 1 mm is a quite challenging process, two
different methods were tried. Firstly, the process was carried out
using a micro-milling machine with the help of a customized
sample holder and a digital microscope [32]. However, the
vibration during the machining process resulted in damaged
polymer rod and rough electrode surface. In order to overcome
the drawback of the mechanical machining process, a mold to
make the cylindrical membrane with four bumps of the width of
0.2 mm at every 90° was prepared (see Fig. 6). The inter-digitation
of the electrodes was carried out by elimination of the bumps
with cutting tools and process as shown in Fig. 7. The comparison
in Table 2 shows that the bump elimination results in better
electrodes compared to the electrodes done with the mechanical
machining.
56 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60

Table 2
Cylindrical ipmcs before and after inter-digitation.
Before inter-digitation After inter-digitation

Inter-digitation by mechanical machining process [15]

Inter-digitation by bump eliminating process

Fig. 8. Fabricated contact electrode for the cylindrical IPMCs with 4 inter-digitated
electrodes.
Fig. 7. Tools and process for removing the bumps around the cylindrical IPMC.

4. Test setup

4.1. 2-DOF actuation

A contact that is clamped to the electrodes of the cylindrical

IPMC was fabricated using silicon rubber tubing (Inner diameter:
1.6 mm, Outer diameter: 3.2 mm) and electrical wires (28 AWG)
as shown in Fig. 8. A customized PLC module (TSB-22R, COMFILE
technology) and the direction controller panel shown in were
made to apply desired control signals to the four inter-digitated
electrodes.

4.2. Electromechanical properties

The electromechanical responses such as bending deflection
and blocking force of the fabricated cylindrical IPMC were
measured using a laser displacement sensor (ILD-1401, Micro-
Epsilon) and a load cell (GSO-10, Transducer techniques) with a
sample having a diameter of 1 mm and a length of 20 mm. As
shown in Fig. 9, the test setup was composed of DAQ (SCB-68,
National Instruments), DC power supply (CPS250, Tektronix), as
well as the mentioned transducers.
Fig. 9. Bending deflection measurement setup.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Experimental results
Fig. 10 shows the actuation of the cylindrical IPMC in 8 direc-
tions including the vertical/horizontal directions and the diagonal
 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60
Fig. 10. Actuation of the cylindrical IPMC in 8-directions.
Source: From Ref.[15].
Fig. 11. Bending deflection and bending angle in the vertical/horizontal direction
with 3 positive actuation signals.
directions. The measured bending deflection and converted bend-
ing angle of the cylindrical IPMC in the vertical/horizontal direction
with applied voltages of 2–4 V DC are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. The
bending angles were approximated from the measured displace-
ment [32].
Fig. 11 represents the results when the positive signal was ap-
plied to three electrodes as discussed in the Section 2. The bend-
ing angles achieved during 30 s of actuation were approximately
10°, 20°, and 35° for 2 V, 3 V, and 4 V driving signals, respectively.
Fig. 12 shows the results when the positive signal was applied to
one electrode. The bending angles achieved in 30 s of actuation
were approximately 15°, 30°, and 50° for 2 V, 3 V, and 4 V driv-
ing signals, respectively. It can be seen that both bending deflec-
tion and angle are approximately 50% better in case of applying
only one positive signal compared to applying the three positive
signals. It must be noted that the deflection speed is expected to
improve when making thinner rod shaped IPMCs.
Fig. 13 shows the measured bending deflection and the con-
verted bending angle of the cylindrical IPMC in diagonal direction
with applied voltages of 2–4 V DC. A positive signal was applied
to the 2 electrodes as also discussed in Section 2. The maximum
57
Fig. 12. Bending deflection and bending angle in the vertical/horizontal direction
with 1 positive actuation signal.
Fig. 13. Bending deflection and bending angle in the diagonal direction with 2
positive actuation signals.
amplitude of bending in the diagonal direction is similar to that of
the one positive electrode case in the vertical/horizontal direction.
Blocking force measured with driving signals from 2 to 4 V in the
vertical/horizontal direction and diagonal direction are shown in
Figs. 14–16, respectively. Similar tendency can be observed in case
of the bending angle — namely, the three positive actuation signals
result in significantly lower output than that of the one positive
actuation signal. Also, measured force of the one actuation signal
case is similar to the diagonal force measurement.
It should be noted that the measured current during the actu-
ation (and thus estimated capacitance) corresponds to the deflec-
tion and force output, i.e. in case of three positive actuation signals,
the measured current is the lowest and it is approximately same in
case of the one positive actuation signal and diagonal bending with
two positive actuation signals [37].
5.2. Simulation results and model improvement
When comparing the graphs in Figs. 11 and 12 (as well as in
Figs. 14 and 15), it can be seen that the one plus electrode results in
better deflection (and force) than three plus electrodes The initial
model presented in Section 2 did not predict almost any bending
in case of one plus electrode. It appears that the coupling term in
Eq. (3) is too simple and does not capture all the relevant physics
of the actuation.
A comprehensive parametric study was conducted to find
suitable values for the constants A and B. It was found that the
58 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60
Fig. 14. Blocking force in the vertical/horizontal direction with 3 positive actuation
signals.
Fig. 15. Blocking force in the vertical/horizontal direction with 1 positive actuation
signal.
Fig. 16. Blocking force in the diagonal direction with 2 positive actuation signals.
force coupling form in Eq. (3) does not provide a result with any
positive parameters A and B such that one plus electrode deflection
would be remarkably greater than zero. In fact, in most cases it
was significantly below zero. On the other hand, the experimental
data suggests that the cathode of IPMC (positive charge density)
contributes more in terms of creating the bending actuation. Based
Fig. 17. Parametric study to find constants A2 and B2 in Eq. (4). 4 V applied voltage
was used in the simulations and the displacement of interest is determined from
Fig. 12, and was set to a range between 8 mm and 10 mm. The lines represent
calculated displacement for different parameter B2 values whereas the x-axis is
parameter A2 . The value of interest is where the displacement of interest area
intersects with 1 ‘‘+’’ electrode and 3 ‘‘+’’ electrode displacement calculations
based on the same B1 .
Fig. 18. Maximum tip displacement simulated with the time dependent FE model
with new force coupling Fxmod (see Eq. (4)) for different actuation signals and
voltages.
on this assumption, the force coupling Eq. (3) was modified as
follows:
sgn (ρ) + 1 sgn (ρ) − 1
Fxmod = A2 ρ 2 − B2 ρ. (4)
2 2
Here the quadratic term applies only when ρ is positive (cathode
vicinity) and the linear terms when ρ is negative (anode vicinity).
A parametric study was conducted for both one plus and three
plus applied voltage cases to find parameters A2 and B2 . This is
shown in Fig. 17 in case of 4 V. The study was carried out for all
voltage values and the best matching values of A2 and B2 were
found to be 16 × 108 and 2.25 × 107 , respectively. The deflection
simulations were carried out with the new body force variable
Fxmod and the maximum deflections for each signal mode for three
different voltages are shown in Fig. 18.
It can be seen that the enhanced model accurately predicts that
the one plus electrode results in better actuation performance than
three plus electrodes.
 S.J. Kim et al. / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 62 (2014) 53–60
Fig. 19. Electrode configuration for undulating motion. Only the top and bottom
electrodes are used, the voltage is not applied on the sides.
Fig. 20. Calculation of undulated actuation of IPMC. Electrode 1 (see Fig. 19)
subjected to 3 V and Electrode 2 grounded, t = 0 s (a); Electrode 3 grounded and
4 V applied to Electrode 4, t = 2 s (b); and following deformation at t = 6 s and
t = 10 s in (c) and (d), respectively.
5.3. Perspectives
The rod-shaped geometry of the developed IPMC opens up new
ways to achieve more than simple bending in different directions.
With the capability of patterning the differently shaped electrodes,
it is possible to achieve, for instance, undulating motion of the
IPMC. When not only longitudinally but also circumferentially
patterned electrodes are used, different sections of IPMC can be
subjected to different voltages at different times.
As the electrode patterning is rather time-consuming process,
the developed model for IPMCs is a great aid to estimate possible
actuation outputs under different applied voltages. Preliminary
simulations were carried out to explore the ways an IPMC can be
actuated. Four-electrode configuration as shown in Fig. 19 were
59
used. Initially, the electrodes by the clamp (Electrodes 1 and 2)
were subjected to 3 V till the deformation became stationary
(see Fig. 20(a)). Thereafter 4 V was applied to the tip electrodes
(Electrodes 3 and 4). The resulting IPMC deformation at different
times is shown in Fig. 20(b)–(d).
6. Conclusion
An effective fabrication method for cylindrical IPMC actuators
for 2-DOF bending was successfully developed. Finite element
analysis was used before fabrication to ensure the actuation
capabilities of the cylindrical IPMC. A rod shaped IPMC with 4
inter-digitated electrodes was made and the actuation capability
in 4 directions was demonstrated. Bending angles up to 50° were
achieved.
The finite element model that was used for initial calculations
was improved based on the experimental data. Due to the elec-
trode configuration and the shape of the IPMC, it was found that the
anode and cathode areas contribute to the bending differently. A
parametric study was carried out in order to determine the amount
of how much the electrodes contribute to the actuation. The de-
veloped force coupling form is novel and the future work involves
validating it on the regular flat IPMCs with different thicknesses.
The improved FE model can be used as an inexpensive tool
to design rod shaped IPMC electrodes for more complicated
deformations such as undulation. Preliminary calculation results
were shown. Future work includes refining the parameters and
including force calculation in the FE model. Furthermore, different
electrode configurations for 3-DOF actuation such as undulation
will be explored with the aid of the FE model.
Acknowledgments
KJK thanks partial financial support from the National Science
Foundation (CNS0958568) and the Office of Naval Research
(N000140910218). The help for WY for the conceptual design of
IPMC catheter is via National Science Foundation CNS0958565.
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Seong J. Kim is a postdoctoral research associate in the
department of mechanical engineering at University of
Nevada, Reno. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. from the
school of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul
National University, Korea, in 2002 and 2009, respectively.
His research interests are analysis, design, fabrication
and control of electroactive polymer actuator in the
application field of robotics.
David Pugal received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering
at University of Nevada, Reno in August 2012. He is
also affiliated to the Physics Department at University
of Tartu from where he received his master’s degree
in applied physics in 2008. In addition, he has been
working as a software engineer for a company Cybernetica
AS in Estonia since 2005. His main research interests
since 2007 are ionic polymer composite materials and
developing a physics based finite element model to
describe the transduction of the material. He has also been
participating in developing an open source finite element
solver Hermes2D (http://hpfem.org/hermes/) with a focus on implementing the
underlying equations that describe the bending of IPMC.
Johnson Wong is an undergraduate student at University
of Nevada, Reno. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in
Mechanical Engineering at University of Nevada, Reno.
Kwang Jin Kim is Professor and Chair of the Mechanical
Engineering Department and Director of two laboratories
namely ‘‘Active Materials and Processing Laboratory
(AMPL)’’ and ‘‘Low Carbon Green Technology Laboratory
(LCGTL)’’. He graduated from Yonsei University, Korea, in
1987 and received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Arizona State
University (ASU) in 1989 and 1992, respectively. Later,
he completed a postdoctoral study at the University of
Maryland-College Park UMCP (1993–1995). His industrial
experience includes Senior Research Engineer at Thermal
Electric Devices, Inc. (1995–1997) and Chief Scientist
at Environmental Robots, Inc. (1997–2001), Albuquerque NM. He joined as an
assistant professor in 2001, becoming a full professor within six years in 2007.
His research interests are in a broad spectrum of ‘‘Active Materials/Sensors’’ and
‘‘(Renewable) Energy Systems’’. He has authored/co-authored over 250 technical
papers including two books and holds three patents. He is a recipient of the 2006
UNR Lemelson Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the 2002 Ralph E.
Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities,
and a co-recipient of the 1997 Best Paper Award of ASME/Advanced Energy
Systems/HPTC. He is a fellow of ASME.
Woosoon Yim is a Professor and Chair of the Mechanical
Engineering Department and director of Intelligent Struc-
tures and Control Laboratory at University of Nevada, Las
Vegas. He received Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Uni-
versity of Wisconsin–Madison in 1987. He has been hon-
ored with the following awards: Harry Reid Silver State
Research Award (2011), Fellow ASME (2010), Tau Beta
Pi Eminent Engineer (2009), Teacher of the Year award in
the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2000), Out-
standing Faculty Award in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering (2005), Board of Regent’s Outstanding Faculty
(1997), and Excellence in Teaching Award by Tau Beta Pi (1997).