In this research, we introduce a new SMA actuator that can bend in three directions. At present, soft actuators bending in multi directions is developed in several areas. For example, there is a medical active catheter, a microrobot mimicking annelid animals and animatronics. However, these have a complex structure or are expensive. To realize the expression of waving tentacles needs a large number of actuators (e.g. over one thousand actuators). Therefore, we developed a budget actuator with a simple structure.
The SMA actuator driven by three Biometal Fibers (BMF150, developed by TOKI Corporation) can bend in three directions. The heat of each Biometal Fiber is controlled through a pulse-width modulation voltage. The SMA actuator behaves in three motion patterns. The top of SMA actuator is illuminated by the optical fiber connected to the LED.
Publications
Nakayasu, A. 2014. Waving Tentacles: A System and Method for Controlling a SMA Actuator. In SIGGRAPH 2014 Posters, ACM.
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(C) 26330418.