Abstract: In order to enhance the output force of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC), a novel linear actuator unit was designed. First the method of chemical deposition was used to prepare IPMC materials. Then the surface segmentation method was applied to fabricate the linear actuator unit model. The evaluation technique of fatigue peeling was proposed, and the crispation phenomenon of cantilever beam driving was analyzed. The performance of the linear actuator unit under square wave voltage was researched using an IPMC experiment platform. Results show that the crispation phenomenon can be reduced by controlling the voltage lower than 4 V, and the length to width aspect ratio smaller than 3.5. The output force along the motion direction first increases then decreases as the voltage increases, and the maximum output force is 2.15×10^-2 N when the voltage is 4 V, which is four times of the output ability of the cantilever beam. The output displacement keeps constant the does not change with the voltage. Furthermore, the output force along vertical motion direction also does not change with the voltage, which corresponds to the output ability of the cantilever beam. The output displacement also first increases then decreases as the voltage increases, and the maximum output displacement is 41 mm when the voltage is 4 V. The fatigue peeling analysis verifies that the optimal performance of the linear actuator unit is obtained when the voltage ranges from 3 V to 4 V.

Key words: automatic control technology, ionic polymer metal composites(IPMC), linear actuator unit, fatigue peeling, crispation