Displacement Measurement System and Control of Ionic Polymer Metal Composite Actuator

Abstract

This work presents a study comparing two control methods used in IPMC actuators. The position of the free end of the actuator is extracted using low-frequency signals, and the driving voltage is limited to ±3 V. This paper also proposes a new image sensor-based method for measuring displacement, which uses the actuator's route and applied current to predict the direction and detect the free edge using small areas of interest. The algorithm detects the area of the moving route, reduces the searching area of the IPMC's free edge, and predicts the edge direction. An experimental setup was established using a laser sensor and camera system. The results of simple computer usage reveal that the new technique is 17% faster. The paper also discusses model identification using a black-box approach. A major objective is to find the optimal control settings for various methods to highlight the issue of saturation and define the duration in which the IPMC actuator can be controlled.