Polymer fiber actuators: manufacturing, modeling and application on an antagonistic joint

Studies with coiled polymer fibers have shown their ability to generate work by contracting when heated. The present work introduces a device for automatically manufacturing these coiled polymer actuators (CPAs). Furthermore, a mathematical model for the CPAs is proposed and identified using the least squares algorithm and a solver-based nonlinear optimization method. Finally, a model for a rotational joint driven by antagonistic CPAs is presented and simulated.