Sato Tasuku, Sakuma Shinya, Hijikuro Masato, Maeda Shingo, Anyoji Masayuki, Yamanishi Yoko
Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan.
Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga Koen, Kasuga-shi, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan.
Cyborg Bionic Syst. 2021 Jan 9;2021:5158282. doi: 10.34133/2021/5158282. eCollection 2021.
The importance of actuators that can be integrated with flexible robot structures and mechanisms has increased in recent years with the advance of soft robotics. In particular, electrohydrodynamic (EHD) actuators, which have expandable integrability to adapt to the flexible motion of soft robots, have received much attention in the field of soft robotics. Studies have deepened the understanding of steady states of EHD phenomena but nonsteady states are not well understood. We herein observe the development process of fluid in a microchannel adopting a Schlieren technique with the aid of a high-speed camera. In addition, we analyze the behavior of fluid flow in a microchannel that is designed to have pairs of parallel plate electrodes adopting a computational fluid dynamics technique. Results indicate the importance of considering flow generated by electrostatic energy, which tends to be ignored in constructing and evaluating EHD devices, and by the body force generated by the ion-drag force. By considering these effects, we estimate the development process of EHD flow and confirm the importance of considering the generation of vortices and their interactions inside the microchannel during the development of EHD devices.
近年来，随着软机器人技术的发展，能够与柔性机器人结构和机构集成的致动器的重要性日益增加。特别是，具有可扩展集成性以适应软机器人柔性运动的电流体动力学（EHD）致动器，在软机器人领域受到了广泛关注。研究加深了对EHD现象稳态的理解，但对非稳态的理解还不够深入。我们在此借助高速摄像机，采用纹影技术观察微通道中流体的发展过程。此外，我们采用计算流体动力学技术分析了设计有平行板电极对的微通道中流体流动的行为。结果表明，在构建和评估EHD装置时，静电能量产生的流动以及离子拖曳力产生的体力往往被忽视，而考虑这些流动非常重要。通过考虑这些影响，我们估计了EHD流动的发展过程，并证实了在EHD装置开发过程中考虑微通道内涡旋的产生及其相互作用的重要性。
