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Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are smart materials used in robotics because of its light weight and high force-to-weight ratio. The low energy efficiency, up to 5%, has limited their use for large actuators. However, they have shown advantages in the design of mini-robots because of the limited volume r...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Manfredi, Luigi, Cuschieri, Alfred
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213736/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30336632
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma11102014
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author Manfredi, Luigi
Cuschieri, Alfred
author_facet Manfredi, Luigi
Cuschieri, Alfred
author_sort Manfredi, Luigi
collection PubMed
description Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are smart materials used in robotics because of its light weight and high force-to-weight ratio. The low energy efficiency, up to 5%, has limited their use for large actuators. However, they have shown advantages in the design of mini-robots because of the limited volume required for the actuation system. The present study reports the design and construction of a mini compliant joint (MCJ) with a 2 degrees of freedom (DOFs) intersecting axis. The MCJ prototype has a 20 mm external diameter surrounding a cavity of 8 mm, weighs 2 g, is 20 mm high and can perform an angle rotation of 30 [Formula: see text] in less than 260 ms. It uses SMA NiTi wires in antagonistic configuration and springs to reduce the energy consumption and minimise heat production. The design methods and experimental results of the manufactured prototype are reported and discussed.
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spelling pubmed-62137362018-11-14 Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires Manfredi, Luigi Cuschieri, Alfred Materials (Basel) Article Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are smart materials used in robotics because of its light weight and high force-to-weight ratio. The low energy efficiency, up to 5%, has limited their use for large actuators. However, they have shown advantages in the design of mini-robots because of the limited volume required for the actuation system. The present study reports the design and construction of a mini compliant joint (MCJ) with a 2 degrees of freedom (DOFs) intersecting axis. The MCJ prototype has a 20 mm external diameter surrounding a cavity of 8 mm, weighs 2 g, is 20 mm high and can perform an angle rotation of 30 [Formula: see text] in less than 260 ms. It uses SMA NiTi wires in antagonistic configuration and springs to reduce the energy consumption and minimise heat production. The design methods and experimental results of the manufactured prototype are reported and discussed. MDPI 2018-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6213736/ /pubmed/30336632 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma11102014 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Manfredi, Luigi
Cuschieri, Alfred
Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title_full Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title_fullStr Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title_full_unstemmed Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title_short Design of a 2 DOFs Mini Hollow Joint Actuated with SMA Wires
title_sort design of a 2 dofs mini hollow joint actuated with sma wires
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213736/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30336632
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma11102014
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