“Electroactive Polymer Micro-Actuators and Their Applications”
Elisabeth Smela
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Maryland
Monday, March 2, 11 a.m., TI Auditorium
Abstract
This talk will describe developments in electroactive polymer actuators (artificial muscles) in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for gripping, manipulation and locomotion. Such actuators provide robustness, large strain and new possibilities for movement on small size scales. We are working on three types of actuators in our research group. Conjugated polymers, which change volume in response to an applied electrochemical potential, are well suited for aqueous biomedical applications such as cell-based sensing. We are applying these actuators in a bionose-on-a-chip that aims to use olfactory sensory neurons for detection of odorants. We are also miniaturizing dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) for applications in insect-size robots and microrobots. Finally, I will introduce a new type of “nastic” actuator based on microfluidics that may lead to color-changing materials and to soft, deformable robots.
Biography
Elisabeth Smela’s research is primarily in the field of MEMS, particularly polymer MEMS and bioMEMS. She focuses on the use of organic materials (from polymers to cells) in microsystems to realize microactuators, cell-based sensors and CMOS/MEMS integrated systems. She holds a B.S. in physics from MIT and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Her experience includes time as a research scientist at Linköping University in Sweden, a senior scientist at Risø National Laboratory in Denmark and the vice president of research and development at Santa Fe Science and Technology Inc. She joined the University of Maryland in 2000, and she received an NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2004.
