Bioinspired SMA based Actuator

Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya, Yashaswi Sinha, A Sri Harsha, Prof. Bishakh Bhattacharya

Jan 1, 2023

Bipenniform Muscle Inspiration

Abstract

Integrating bio-inspired design principles into smart actuator development could bring forth the next generation of adaptive, light weight, economic and energy efficient smart material-based actuation systems. Increasing industrial demand for such new class of actuators over conventional electromagnetic systems which have limited efficiency, bulky size, complex architecture due to in-built gear-train mechanisms, and high production and amortization costs, drives the innovation in new actuator development. In response to the need, there is an emphasis on the development of cost-effective, scalable, and next-generation driving principle-based actuators powered by smart materials. Shape memory alloys (SMA) have emerged as attractive candidate due to their unique characteristics, such as high force-to-weight ratio, noiseless operation, scalability for miniaturization and muscle-like motion, with the potential to develop novel actuation for biomedical, space, and robotic applications. SMA actuators have been thoroughly investigated for their potential integration into robotic hands, arms, and manipulators. However, relatively long cooling times to retransform from austenite to martensite state hinders their use for fast and rapid cyclic operations.

Objectives

	Project Milestones
-	Design and development of scalable and modular shape memory alloy (SMA) based novel actuation mechanism based on bipennate muscle architecture for fast cyclic applications
-	Active feedback system using SMA as a self-sensing element based on LSTM (Long short-term memory) based-RL (Reinforcement Learning) control architecture
-	Integration of evaporative cooling method for obtaining high actuation frequency of SMA-based agonist-antagonistic system
-	Analytical modelling and simulation of the actuation system, design optimization and experimental validation of the model

Bioinspired SMA-based Linear Actuator for building control and automation operations

Simulation output of the temperature distribution as well as the stress-induced transition temperature of the SMA-based bipennate actuator. A Simulink block diagram of the mathematical model for a bipennate-based SMA linear actuator.

Signal Conditioning Circuit for SMA based self-sensing

Bioinspired SMA based Artifical Muscle - Poster

Peer-reviewed Article

Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya, A. Sri Harsha, Yashaswi Sinha, Bishakh Bhattacharya (2022). Design and development of non-magnetic hierarchical actuator powered by shape memory alloy based bipennate muscle. Scientific Reports.

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Patents

Bishakh Bhattacharya, A Sri Harsha, Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya (2022). Bipennate Muscle Architecture-based Shape Memory Alloy Embedded Hierarchical Actuator. Patent Number - 414106.

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Bishakh Bhattacharya, Kapil Das Sahu, Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya, Ujjain Kumar Bidila, P Mani Kumar (2021). An Actuator for a Valve. Application Number - PCT/US2022/041899.

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International Conference

Yashaswi Sinha, Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya, Yash Ashok Kumar Patel, Tanuj Gupta, Bishakh Bhattacharya, Amanpreet Singh (2023). Design and development of novel rotary actuation system based on shape memory alloy springs driven mechanism arranged in bipennate muscle architecture. Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems XVII.