TY - JOUR
T1 - Guest Editorial Introduction to the focused Section on electroactive Polymer Mechatronics
AU - Carpi, Federico
AU - Kornbluh, Roy
AU - Sommer-Larsen, Peter
AU - Rossi, Danilo De
AU - Alici, Gursel
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Mechatronic devices and systems based on so-called
electroactive polymers (EAPs) represent a fast-growing and
promising scientific field of research and development. EAPs consist
of materials capable of changing dimensions and/or shape in
response to suitable electrical stimuli. These polymers show unique
properties, such as sizable electrically driven active strains or
stresses, high mechanical flexibility, lowdensity, structural simplicity,
ease of processing and scalability, no acoustic noise, and, in most
cases, low costs. EAPs are today studied for applications that so far
have been unachievable with conventional actuation technologies,
with usage spanning from the micro- to the macro-scale, in several
fields, including robotics, automation, prosthetics, orthotics,
artificial organs, optics, energy harvesting, and even aerospace. In
an effort to disseminate current advances in the field, this Focused
Section collects together a selection of papers dealing with a number
of topics related to science and technology of EAPs. Following
a brief introduction to the field, this Editorial provides an overview
on papers dealing with EAPs published in previous issues of this
journal, introduces the papers selected for this Focused Section,
and highlights future trends in the field.
AB - Mechatronic devices and systems based on so-called
electroactive polymers (EAPs) represent a fast-growing and
promising scientific field of research and development. EAPs consist
of materials capable of changing dimensions and/or shape in
response to suitable electrical stimuli. These polymers show unique
properties, such as sizable electrically driven active strains or
stresses, high mechanical flexibility, lowdensity, structural simplicity,
ease of processing and scalability, no acoustic noise, and, in most
cases, low costs. EAPs are today studied for applications that so far
have been unachievable with conventional actuation technologies,
with usage spanning from the micro- to the macro-scale, in several
fields, including robotics, automation, prosthetics, orthotics,
artificial organs, optics, energy harvesting, and even aerospace. In
an effort to disseminate current advances in the field, this Focused
Section collects together a selection of papers dealing with a number
of topics related to science and technology of EAPs. Following
a brief introduction to the field, this Editorial provides an overview
on papers dealing with EAPs published in previous issues of this
journal, introduces the papers selected for this Focused Section,
and highlights future trends in the field.
KW - Polymer solar cells
KW - Plastsolceller
U2 - 10.1109/TMECH.2010.2094199
DO - 10.1109/TMECH.2010.2094199
M3 - Editorial
SN - 1083-4435
VL - 167
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - I E E E - A S M E Transactions on Mechatronics
JF - I E E E - A S M E Transactions on Mechatronics
IS - 1
ER -