A Study On Propulsion Performance Optimization Of Capsule Robot Based On IPMC Artificial Muscle Actuator

Ionic Polymer Metal Composite(IPMC)is a new kind of smart materials,it can produce large bending deformation in low-voltage signal.Its excellent electrical characteristics and good biocompatibility make it have more and more attention in biomedical science.Also it has severval advantages such as small volume,lightness,flexibility,rapid response,operation in water filled environment.To solve the existing defects of clinical commercial capsule endoscopy,in this paper,we designed a kind of capsule robot based on IPMC actuator,studied the factors of propulsion performance and then optimized them.So we can enhance the stability and propulsion performance of the capsule capsule based on IPMC actuator.The main contents include the following parts:(1)IPMC actuators for the capsule robot were prepared.Control signals for the experiments of propulsion performance optimization of capsule robot were prepared.(2)The functions of capsule robot were palnned,mainly divided into two parts: the active clamping and the active driving in human body.The structure of capsule robot was designed and fabricated by laser 3D printing.The tail drive of capsule robot was designed,and on the basis of single tail propulsion model,a capsule robot with double tail fin was designed.(3)The capsule robot was texted and the influence factors of the propulsion performance was proposed and optimized.Experiments show that the maximum swimming speed of the double-fin structure capsule robot can reach 15 mm/s.Choose the optimal driving conditions to realize the active driving and active clamping of capsule robot in simulated intestinal environment.(4)The propulsive force of capsule robot under different caudal fin structures were measured by using three-dimensional force sensor,and hydrodynamic simulation was performed with ANSYS FLUENT.The results showed that,compared to single-caudal fin capsule,the velocity of doublecaudal fin capsule was increased by about 25%-30% and the propulsive force was increased by about 40%-50%.The double-caudal fin capsule overcomes the side-swing problem of single-tail fin capsule,which ensures the stability of capsule robot and improves the speed and propulsive force.