Actuation and Sensing Studies of a Miniaturized Five Fingered Robotic Hand Made with Ion Polymeric Metal Composite (IPMC)

Abstract

Nafion based IPMC (Ion Polymeric Metal Composites) has been prepared by using a tetraaquaplatinum (II) complex, [Pt (H 2 O) 4 ])ClO 4 ) 2 . Fabrication of a robotic mini-hand comprising five micro-fingers of 5 mm length, 400 μm width at a pitch of 600 μm has been achieved by adopting mechanical micro milling ' technique. The micro-fingers prepared from the IPMC material were found to actuate successfully under operating voltage of 2.5 V.