WorldWide Electroactive Polymer Actuators* Webhub

* Artificial Muscles
This homepage provides links to various electroactive polymer (EAP) websites worldwide and it is maintained by the JPL's NDEAA Technologies Lab. For background information please see a lecture on video entitled "Electroactive Polymers as Artificial Muscles. The field of EAP is part of the broader field of biomimetics Note: The graphics on this website is clickable. The graphics of the two EAP platforms are linked to videos that require QuickTime.

View video reviewing the field of EAP In 1999, Dr. Bar-Cohen posed a challenge to the worldwide research and engineering community to develop a robotic arm that is actuated by artificial muscles to win an armwrestling match against a human opponent. The first Armwrestling Match between EAP actuated Robot and Human (AMERAH) was held on March 7, 2005 as part of the 2005 SPIE Annual International EAPAD (EAP Actuators & Devices) Conference. This match was organized with assistance from the United States ArmSports who provided the table for the match. There were three participating organizations including Environmental Robots Incorporated (ERI), New Mexico; Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, EMPA, Dubendorf, Switzerland; and three senior students from the Engineering Science and Mechanics Dept., Virginia Tech. The human opponent is Panna Felsen, a Straight-A high school student from San Diego. Panna won against all the three robotic arms where the ERI made arm managed to last 26-seconds before losing while the other two managed to hold for 4 and 3 seconds, respectively. Even though they did not win, this has been a very important milestone for the field. To draw analogy from aerospace, one may want to remember that the first flight lasted about 12 seconds. A video of the competition is available on the Discovery channel's Daily Planet, March 15, 2005.

Some of the applications that are being considered include Haptic/Tactile Interfaces and particularly Active Braille Display. Another development is the first commercial product and it is a fish robot, and it was announced by EAMEX, Japan, at the SPIE's EAPAD 2003 Conference.

WW-EAP INFORMATION AND ARCHIEVE

Books that cover the subject of EAP EAP related Conferences and Symposia Companies that produce EAP materials, and actuators, and/or provide processes Biomimetics: Biologically-Inspired Technologies Research opportunities (STTR, MURI, etc.) Available positions (Postdoc, etc.) How to make Electroactive Polymer Actuators (IPMC, etc.) EAP in Action video clippings Worldwide EAP Newsletter Call for input to the 23rd issue of the WW-EAP Newsletter

PROPERTIES OF BIOLOGICAL AND ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES/EAP

What are muscles? - "Skeletal Muscle is a Biological Example of a Linear Electro-Active Actuator," Dr. Richard L. Lieber, UCSD (SPIE paper 3669-03) What are the names of human muscles? - Atlas of the Body The Muscles - Side View A brief history of muscle research - Anthony N. Martonosi, "Animal electricity, Ca2+ and muscle contraction," Acta Biochimica Polonica, Vol. 47 No. 3 (2000) How is muscles compared with conductive polymer EAP? - MIT's comparison table

How are EAP compared with other electroactive materials? - SRI International comparison tables/charts. These tables and charts are based on preliminary data. We would like to encourage the research community to challenge the data and help us make it as accurate as possible. Comparing the properties of EAP materials - Review article by J. Madden, et al, Materials Today, April 2007 Properties of Biological and Artificial Muscles/EAP - Measured EAP properties: the University of British Columbia's web database for viewing, comparing and submitting EAP properties.

TECHNICAL JOURNAL RELATED TO EAP AND BIOMIMETICS

WW-EAP Newsletter, JPL Bioinspiration & Biomimetics Learning from Nature IEEE Spectrum/Robotics Biomaterials Network biomat.net Neuroprosthesis Website Rapra Publications, "Handbook of Conducting Polymers"

ORGANIZATIONS WORKING WITH EAP

Australia Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, U. of Wollongong

Brazil

Laboratorio de Polimeros Condutores e Reciclagem, Instituto de Quimica, Campinas, SP

Canada Conducting Polymer Devices Group, University of British Columbia Smart and Adaptive Polymers Lab, University of Toronto

Estonia Intelligent Materials and Systems Laboratory, University of Tartu

India Conductive Polymers -- Centro Polymer Science & Engineering, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune

Israel Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel Plastic and Rubber Engineering, Materials and Processes, RAFAEL, Haifa, Israel

Japan Ion Exchange Memberances (IPMC), Asahi Glass Biomimetic Materials Group, National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research, Tsukuba EAMEX Corporation, Ikeda Laboratory:1-8-31 Midorigaoka, Ikeda city, Osaka, k.onishi@eamex.co.jp Jouhou System Kougaku Laboratory, Dept. of Mechano Informatics, Faculty of Engineering, Univ. of Tokyo Osaka National Research Institute, Osaka Dept. of Computer & Systems Engineering, Kobe University Div. of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University

Hane Lab, Department of Mechatronics and Precision Engineering, Tohoku University, Graduate school of Engineering, Sendai, Japan EAP nonionic polymer gel actuators, Department of Materials Chemistry, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fokuoka Ritsumeikan University Gunma University, Maebashi Toshio Nippon Densan Corp., Shiga Olymous Optical Co. Canon K.K.

Korea Department of Electrical Engineering, Dankook University, Seoul Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul

New Zealand Biomimetics Laboratory, The Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland

EUROPE
European Network of artificial muscle (ESNAM)

Denmark Risoe National Laboratory, Condensed Matter Physics and Chemistry Department, Roskilde Danfoss PolyPower A/S England Rapra Publications, Handbook of Conducting Polymers

France Department of Cardiac Surgery, Timone Hospital Marseille l'Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris Institut Curie in Paris Laboratoire d'Automatique, Besanon Reseau Francais de Mecanosynthese Institut Curie - PARIS CEDEX 05, France, in collaboration with PG de Gennes Germany Department of Physics, University of Bayreuth, Universitt Bayreuth, Bayreuth
Institute for Electromechanical Design, Darmstadt University of Technology

Hungary Magnetic Field Sensitive Polymer Gels, Dept. of Physical Chemistry, Technical University of Budapest Italy Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Universit degli Studi di Catania Dept. of Computers Science, University of Genoa, Genoa Centro ""E. Piaggio" Faculty of Engineering, University of Pisa Russia St. Petersburg Inst. for Informatics & Automat. of Russia Academy of Sciences, Robotics Laboratory, St. Petersburg Spain University of the Basque Country, Faculty of Chemistry, San Sebastian Mobile Manipulators Group, Carlos III University of Madrid Sweden Lab. of Applied Physics, IFM, Linkpings universitet, Linkping Micromuscle AB, Linkping

Switzerland Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Dbendorf Optotune, Ueberlandstrasse, Dbendorf Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) Turkey Department of Electrical and Electronics Eng. Dokuz Eylul University, zmir

USA
Alabama Lab of Molecular Biophysics, University of Alabama, AL Arizona Gel Polymers University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ California Electroactive Polymers (EAP), NDEAA Lab, Advanced Technologies Group, JPL, Pasadena, CA SPAWARSYSCEN, San Diego, CA Intelligent Mechanisms Group, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA SRI International, Advanced Technology Division, Menlo Park, CA Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences, Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials, University of California, San Diego Hanson Robotics, Inc. Connecticut EAP Reports, Business Communications Company Inc., Connecticut Institute of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Depts., University of Connecticut

Maryland Laboratory for Active Materials and Biomimetics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD Massachusetts MIT, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, Ma MIT, Bioinstruments, Conducting Polymer Devices and Materials, Cambridge, Ma Molecular Mechanisms, Ma Michigan Michigan State University - "The Nanotube Site" Michigan State University - Smart Microsystems Laboratory (SML) Montana Montana State University, Dept. of Physics, College of Letters and Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT New Jersey Allied Signal, Morristown, NJ Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Eng., Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ Dept. of Mechanics and Materials Science, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ New Mexico (AMRI) Artificial Muscle Research Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Environmental Robots Inc., Albuquerque, NM Santa Fe Science and Technology, Santa Fe, NM Smart Materials & Structures at Sandia, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM North Carolina MCNC - Sensors and Actuators Group, Materials and Electronic Technologies Division, Research Triangle Park, NC

Pennsylvania Electro Polymer Technology Indiana University of Pennsylvania Neuro Kinetics, Inc. Penn State University, Materials Research Lab, College Station, PA Penn State College of Medicine South Dakota Compliant Structures Laboratory, ME Dept., SD School of Mines & Tech., Rapid City, SD Texas UTD NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas Virginia Composites & Polymers Branch, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA Fiber & Electro-Optics Research Center (FEORC), Virginia Tech Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Virginia Tech Washington Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Biological muscles Dept. of Orhopedics and Bioengineering, University of California, V.A. Medical Center, San Diego, CA Department of Cardiac Surgery, Timone Hospital Marseille, France

EAP materials Suppliers

Companies that produce EAP materials, and actuators, and/or provide processes

Polymer MEMS The following are institutes that are exploring the use of polymers to produce micro-electro-mechanicalsystems (MEMS) Micro Actuators, Sensors, and Systems Group, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Technical Journal that is recommended for EAP R&D publications: WW-EAP Newsletter, JPL Bioinspiration & Biomimetics Learning from Nature IEEE Spectrum/Robotics Biomaterials Network - biomat.net Neuroprosthesis Website Rapra Publications, "Handbook of Conducting Polymers"

Terminology EAP - general term describing polymers that respond to electrical stimulation Electronic EAP - polymer that change shape or dimensions due to migration of electrons in response to electric field (usually dry) Ionic EAP - polymer that change shape or dimensions due to migration of ions in response to electric field (usually wet and contains electrolyte) Electrostriction - the none linear reaction of ferroelectric EAP (relating strain to E2)

For more information you can contact: Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), MS 67-119, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 Phone: 818-354-2610, e-mail: yosi@jpl.nasa.gov
Last updated February 14, 2011