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),
Some of the applications that are being considered include Haptic/Tactile Interfaces and particularly Active Braille Display.
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
Call for input to the
upcoming 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
Bioinspiration
& Biomimetics Learning from Nature
Biomaterials
Network - biomat.net
Rapra
Publications, "Handbook of Conducting Polymers"
ORGANIZATIONS WORKING WITH EAP
Intelligent Polymer Research
Institute, U. of Wollongong
Brazil
Laboratorio de Polimeros Condutores e
Reciclagem, Instituto de Quimica, Campinas, SP
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
Conductive Polymers
-- Centro Polymer Science & Engineering, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
Israel
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Plastic and Rubber
Engineering, Materials and Processes, RAFAEL,
Japan
Ion Exchange Membranes (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
Osaka National
Research Institute, Osaka
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,
EAP nonionic
polymer gel actuators, Department of Materials Chemistry, Faculty of
Textile Science and Technology,
Department of Electrical Engineering, Dankook University, Seoul
Dept. of Biomedical
Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul
Biomimetics
Laboratory, The Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland
European Network of
artificial muscle (ESNAM)
Risoe National Laboratory, Condensed Matter Physics and
Chemistry Department, Roskilde
England
Computer
Vision Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen
Mary
France
Germany
Department of Physics, University
of Bayreuth, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth
Institute
for Electromechanical Design, Darmstadt University of Technology
Hungary
Department
of Physical Chemistry, Technical University of Budapest, Budapest
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica
Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania
Centro
""E. Piaggio" Faculty of Engineering,
University of Pisa
Spain
Mobile Manipulators
Group, Carlos III University of Madrid
Switzerland
Swiss
Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Dübendorf
Optotune, Ueberlandstrasse, Dübendorf
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Lausanne (EPFL)
Gel Polymers University of
Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Electroactive
Polymers (EAP), NDEAA Lab, Advanced Technologies Group, JPL, Pasadena, CA
SRI International,
Advanced Technology Division, Menlo Park, CA
Department
of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Connecticut
Institute
of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Depts., University of Connecticut
Maine:
Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Dept. of
Mech. Eng. College of Engineering, University of Maine
Maryland
Laboratory for Active Materials
and Biomimetics, The Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University
of Maryland, College Park, MD
MIT, Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, Ma
MIT, Bioinstruments, Conducting Polymer Devices and Materials,
Cambridge, Ma
Michigan State University -
"The Nanotube Site"
Michigan State University -
Smart Microsystems Laboratory (SML)
Montana State University,
Dept. of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman
Allied Signal, Morristown, NJ
Dept. of Mechanics and Materials
Science,
Pennsylvania
Indiana University
of Pennsylvania
Penn State
University, Materials Research Lab, College Station, PA
Carnegie Mellon University.
Soft Robotics and Bionics Lab
South Dakota
Compliant
Structures Laboratory, ME Dept., SD School of Mines & Tech., Rapid City, SD
Texas
UTD NanoTech
Institute, University of Texas at Dallas
Composites &
Polymers Branch,
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-mechanical-systems (MEMS)
Micro Actuators, Sensors, and Systems Group,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Technical Journal that is
recommended for EAP R&D publications:
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics Learning
from Nature
Biomaterials
Network - biomat.net
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,
Phone: 818-354-2610, e-mail: yosi@jpl.nasa.gov
Last updated – July 23, 2018