MechScience: For mechanician & mechanical science

WorldWide Electroactive Polymer Actuators* Webhub
http://eap.jpl.nasa.gov/

This homepage provides links to various electroactive polymer (EAP) websites worldwide and it is maintained by the JPL's NDEAA Technologies Lab. For background information please see a lecture on video entitled "Electroactive Polymers as Artificial Muscles" or see the following article [Keynote Presentation at the Robotics 2000 and Space 2000, NM, USA] entitled: "EAP as Artificial Muscles - Capabilities, Potentials and Challenges". The field of EAP is part of the broader field of biomimetics

In 1999, Dr. Bar-Cohen posed a challenge to the worldwide research and engineering community to develop a robotic arm that is actuated by artificial muscles to win an armwrestling match against a human opponent. The first Armwrestling Match between EAP actuated Robot and Human (AMERAH) was held on March 7, 2005 as part of the 2005 SPIE Annual International EAPAD (EAP Actuators & Devices) Conference. This match was organized with assistance from the United States ArmSports who provided the table for the match. There were three participating organizations including Environmental Robots Incorporated (ERI), New Mexico; Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, EMPA, Dubendorf, Switzerland; and three senior students from the Engineering Science and Mechanics Dept., Virginia Tech. The human opponent is Panna Felsen, a Straight-A high school student from San Diego. Panna won against all the three robotic arms where the ERI made arm managed to last 26-seconds before losing while the other two managed to hold for 4 and 3 seconds, respectively. Even though they did not win, this has been a very important milestone for the field. To draw analogy from aerospace, one may want to remember that the first flight lasted about 12 seconds. A video of the competition is available on the Discovery channel's Daily Planet, March 15, 2005.