Design, Modeling, and Control of Active (Smart) Materials for
High-Performance Positioning and Robotic Systems Kam K. Leang, Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah http://mech.utah.edu/ ABSTRACT Active (smart) material-based actuators, such as those fabricated from piezoelectric ceramics and electroactive polymers, have attracted great attention for engineering nano and bio-inspired systems. For example, piezoactuators are used in nanopositioning, scanning probe microscopes, high-density data storage devices, and flapping-wing microrobots; and ionic polymer metal composites, a type of electroactive polymer, are exploited to create bio-inspired propulsion mechanisms for underwater robots. A critical problem with these actuators, however, is the existence of performance-degrading effects such as hysteresis, creep, vibration, back-relaxation, and other nonlinear and time-varying effects. These behaviors, unfortunately, cause significant positioning error and limit performance in terms of precision, speed, repeatability, and reliability. This talk focuses on theoretical and experimental results in design, modeling, and control to address these issues. Specifically, ! control algorithms that exploit the process of repetition and system models to compensate for deficit performance will be presented. Results from key projects in the area of high-speed nanopositioning and bio-inspired actuators for robotic systems will be discussed BIO Kam K. Leang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, in December 1997 and 1999, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, in December 2004. He is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Utah, where he joined in July 2014. Between 2008 and 2014, he was at the University of Nevada, Reno. While at the University of Nevada, Reno, he received the 2013 College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award and the 2014 Nevada Board of Regent’s Rising Research Award. Dr. Leang's research interests include: modeling and precision control of electroactive (smart) material actuators (piezoelectrics and electroactive polymers), nanopositioning and scanning probe microscopy, and more recently the design and control of aerial robots for autonomous indoor applications. He has published over 100 technical papers and his work is! supported by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and industry partners. He currently serves as a Technical Editor for IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics and an Associate Editor for IEEE Control Systems Magazine. More details about his research can be found at http://www.kam.k.leang.com/academics/.
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