Robert Brik
Age: 18
Mills E. Godwin High School
Henrico County Public Schools
Clubs and Activities:
FIRST Robotics Team, Math Modeling Team, Chess Club, Technology Student Association, National Honor Society, BETA, Math National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Russian Club
Interests:
Robotics, chess, soccer, Tae Kwon Do
Comments:
“I left Russia over 16 years ago and I’m very excited about the opportunity to go back! It’ll be amazing to visit Mission Control Center and Star City, speak with cosmonauts, and meet people from around the world."
Project:
Optimizing Ion Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) Efficiencies for Exploration and Medical Applications in Space
The goal of this experiment was to optimize the efficiency of Ion Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuators for use in a wide variety of applications, including space, underwater research, and electronics. An IPMC is a new type of smart material that can be used for actuation and sensing. When low voltages are applied, the material exhibits large deformations and can easily be adapted to sensing applications (Shahinpoor, 1998). The immediate objective was to maximize the efficiency of IPMC actuators in order to easily incorporate IPMCs in space exploration technologies.
When traditional motors are scaled down, they become extremely inefficient, and therefore a new type of propulsion is required for small robotic systems. One highly potential candidate for efficient propulsion is a smart material-based actuator which deforms or changes shape based on changes in temperature, electrical field, or magnetic field. An IPMC is a thin polyelectrolyte film, which has been chemically plated on both sides with a noble metal (Chen, 2005). When electricity is applied to the electrodes, it induces ion diffusion from one electrode to the other, subsequently causing bending. IPMCs have many desirable characteristics over traditional materials.
Recently, space programs have focused on exploring other planets. Through the use of smart materials, such as IPMCs, the mechanical portions that get jammed by space dust would be eliminated. Researchers are also designing autonomous underwater robots to investigate possible bodies of water, such as the subsurface oceans on Jupiter’s moon Europa. An IPMC-based robot would be able to navigate very small spaces, while minimizing noise pollution.
Determining the most efficient method for a small robot to swim would be very beneficial to the medical field. Researchers at Haifa’s Technion in Israel are developing a small robot to swim through cerebrospinal fluid, which is propelled by flippers similar to IPMCs (Levav, 2006). In addition, IPMCs can replace muscles and therefore be very advantageous in repairing injuries or creating a strengthened exoskeleton (Shahinpoor, 2005).
IPMCs can alternate between actuating and sensing simply by whether voltage is being applied or measured. IPMCs can be placed on rovers and spacecraft to monitor equipment or work as tactile sensors. In a NASA funded project, a miniature robotic arm was created using IPMCs to function as a dust-wiper on a rover. In addition a 4-finger IPMC gripper was created and successfully moved objects (Bar-Cohen, 1999).
The purpose of the experiment was to find the voltage and frequency for optimal performance of an IPMC actuator. Experiment results showed that 2 Hz and 2.5 V should be used for the highest velocity. However, if a large displacement is required, then 0.5 Hz should be used.
The results agreed with prior research, which stated that an increase in voltage would cause an increase in displacement and velocity. Optimal velocity results were found at 2 Hz, confirming Michigan State’s experimentation (Tan, 2006). The research supported that IPMC actuation is mostly linear in relation to frequency and voltage. In addition, the data indicated that IPMCs can not be represented by traditional swimming models, such as the Strouhal Number.
By understanding the most efficient method for IPMC actuation, smaller robots and devices can be created to perform more unique tasks.