Energy and Force Optimization of a Network of Novel Electromagnetic Soft Actuators

Nafiseh Ebrahimi and Amir Jafari
Additional contact information
Nafiseh Ebrahimi: Advanced Robotic Manipulators (ARM) Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), One Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Amir Jafari: Advanced Robotic Manipulators (ARM) Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), One Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-14

Abstract: This paper discusses how to optimally design polygonal profiles of Electromagnetic Soft Actuators (ESAs) to be used in a network to achieve maximum output force with minimum energy consumption. The soft actuators work based on operating principle of solenoids but are made of intrinsically soft materials. It was, previously, confirmed that by miniaturizing the size, the amount of output force decreases for a single ESA however, by the ratio of force to volume increases. Therefore, networking small sized ESAs, would increase the output force. Initially, ESAs were made with circular cross-section profiles. However, we prove here that the shape of the cross-section profile can affect the output force. A polygonal shape with fewer sides would result in higher output force for a single ESA. However, with a network of ESAs, another parameter, packing density, plays an important role in the output force. Our optimization results suggest that even though triangular cross-section profiles lead to the highest amount of force for a single ESA, the best choice would be hexagonal shapes when they are networked.

Keywords: design optimization; soft magnet; electromagnetic actuator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/14/3572/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/14/3572/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:14:p:3572-:d:382981

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().