A research team from the Department of Electrical and Electronics, Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa (UPV / EHU), led by Professor Victor Etxebarria, studies the characteristics of various types of materials for subsequent use in the generation and measurement of precise movements.
At the time of pick up an egg or a light bulb with the arms of a robot is essential to do so as accurately as possible. Therefore, the progress of science and technology of materials have led to the design and control of systems equipped with sensors and actuators built with new materials.
Auto Group, Department of Electrical and Electronics, Faculty of Science and Technology studies the stimulus-response characteristics of various types of materials used in the generation and measurement of precise movements in electromechanical systems in miniature and in robotics.
Specifically, the studies focus on two types of materials with promising properties for micro positioning applications: shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory alloys, magnetic or ferromagnetic (MSM or FSMA). They are all new materials, classified as intelligent for their ability to memorize the shape and other novel properties.
The shape memory alloys are capable of remembering their original size and shape even after having undergone a deformation process. The most common of these alloys are generically known as nitinol, being composed of nickel and titanium, almost 50%. There is often sold commercially in the form of threads.
The shape memory alloys are magnetic ferromagnetic materials capable of withstanding large transformations that are reversible both in shape and size, under applicable a magnetic field. There are currently commercially manufactured only in research laboratories.
The team built a number of potentially useful devices for robotics, using these shape memory materials, and investigated new applications fundamentally aimed at light or electromechanical systems in miniature.
At the time of pick up an egg or a light bulb with the arms of a robot is essential to do so as accurately as possible. Therefore, the progress of science and technology of materials have led to the design and control of systems equipped with sensors and actuators built with new materials.
Auto Group, Department of Electrical and Electronics, Faculty of Science and Technology studies the stimulus-response characteristics of various types of materials used in the generation and measurement of precise movements in electromechanical systems in miniature and in robotics.
Specifically, the studies focus on two types of materials with promising properties for micro positioning applications: shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory alloys, magnetic or ferromagnetic (MSM or FSMA). They are all new materials, classified as intelligent for their ability to memorize the shape and other novel properties.
The shape memory alloys are capable of remembering their original size and shape even after having undergone a deformation process. The most common of these alloys are generically known as nitinol, being composed of nickel and titanium, almost 50%. There is often sold commercially in the form of threads.
The shape memory alloys are magnetic ferromagnetic materials capable of withstanding large transformations that are reversible both in shape and size, under applicable a magnetic field. There are currently commercially manufactured only in research laboratories.
The team built a number of potentially useful devices for robotics, using these shape memory materials, and investigated new applications fundamentally aimed at light or electromechanical systems in miniature.
Laboratory prototypes
The use of SMA as actuators in low-precision applications is not particularly novel. However, researchers at the UPV / EHU have developed some experimental devices that radically improve the control of positioning of these actuators. As a result, have built a prototype of a light grip for a flexible robot of small dimensions, capable of handling small objects. For this, they placed nitinol wire between two elastic metal sheets so that if the thread is applied an electric current, the sheets contract and the claws are closed entirely, collecting small objects around it. Without such power, the claws open completely. However, the research group of the UPV / EHU has improved the movement to open and close, reaching position that movement with an accuracy of a micron. The accuracy of one micron may be sufficient in many applications, eg in machine tools.
regard to shape memory alloys, magnetic and ferromagnetic, the researchers at the UPV / EHU has designed a device which has managed to position objects with an accuracy of about 20 nanometers. Being a handmade device with a simple control system, researchers do not doubt that it can be improved. It can also be a serious candidate to replace the current high precision devices, as positioning devices made of shape memory alloys are ferromagnetic great advantage that, once suitably positioned non energy. The use of FSMA actuators can be very important in some applications, for example, large telescopes, which have many mirrors that have to move with great precision to focus properly.
All these appliances, craft time, serve to prove the basic characteristics of the materials in the laboratory, but maybe in the future may become final commercial prototypes of robotic devices and micro and nanopositioning.
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