Vision-based control and applications of conjugated electro-active polymer actuators

Conjugated electro-active polymer (EAP) actuators are smart materials which response electrical stimulation by changing their shape and dimension via ion transfer in micro structure level. Laser distance sensors are widely used for position control of conjugated EAP actuators. Although their widely usage, they are costly and have relatively large size. They can usually measure movement only in single axis and cannot measure after a certain point. These disadvantages limit research on position control of conjugated EAP actuators. This thesis presents a vision-based position measurement method for position control of conjugated EAP actuators. The proposed vision-based position control system is compared with systems using laser distance sensor. After removal of the restrictions of the previous system, an experiment including position and force control has been performed by a hybrid controller system using the vision-based position control method. Results show that, the proposed vision based position control method is able to precisely control position of conjugated EAP actuators and eliminating the necessity of laser distance sensors for control widens the application areas for conjugated EAP.