Abstract
A novel design of an artificial soft robot similar to the motions of a magic carpet is presented. Reported in the planning, designing, and fabricating of a biomimetic magic (flying) carpet made with ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs). A new family of IPMC sensors and actuators is proposed to be used as a flexible plate and a flexible carpet to form a biomimetic flexible soft sensor and actuator system. The magic carpets made with IPMCs will be experimentally capable of bending, rolling, turning, twisting, and simultaneous sensing. However, their sensing characteristics as a soft biomimetic magic carpet feedback sensor are shown to have great potential for ubiquitous robot-human interactions (RHI). Upon various types of deformation, they are shown to generate unique output voltage signals and transient currents to be correlated to the actual magic carpet feedback force. Furthermore, a flexible sheet of IPMC can be actuated simultaneously on the fly by a small power supply embedded in the magic carpet. The magic carpet version of IPMC can be applied as smart skin to develop human-like dexterous and soft manipulation.
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