| onic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) have become an area of interest in the past decade for their unique properties as actuators. Conventional IPMCs require the use of rare earth metals for electrodes making the fabrication of these materials expensive, time consuming to produce, and not suitable for large scale manufacturing. Due to the low actuational forces, in the millinewton scale, characterization of IPMCs is costly and often requires expensive force sensors and data acquisition (DAQ) systems. This thesis explores the capabilities of a low cost, two dimensional millinewton force sensor fabricated out of nitinol... |
