Mechatronic design and control of singly and doubly curved composite mesoscale actuator systems

Recently, the design of carved mesoscale actuators (deflections from 1 to 1 5 mm) has been a topic of study for many researchers. The work in this pape r deals with the development of a comprehensive modeling technique for deal ing with curved actuators. First, the formulation begins with the equations of motion for a general shell surface. Second, relationships for reducing the equations to those for known actuators are given, The technique can be applied to a broad array of curved actuators. These actuators include but a re not limited to rainbow actuators, thunder actuators, and basic C-block a ctuators, Next, the technique is then experimentally verified on a stack of rainbow actuators. Finally, the system is controlled using both classical and intelligent control techniques. In addition, hardware and circuitry iss ues are explored.