Advanced, Electroactive Materials-Based Transducer & Actuator

Researchers at the NASA Langley Research Center produced an advanced, electroactive materials-based transducer that can harvest orders of magnitude more energy in a given application than traditional solutions. Langley researchers also developed a hybrid actuator with both an electroactive polymer and an electroactive ceramic that achieves enhanced displacement performance from a single power supply. The actuator reduces electrical consumption while improving mechanical displacement compared to current state-of-the-art actuators. Automobile, aeronautics, and mobile communication industries could benefit from the technology.

Transcript

00:00:12 Researchers at the NASA Langley Research Center have produced an advanced electro-active materials based transducer that can harvest orders of magnitude more energy in a given application than traditional solutions, yielding more power to drive devices and store in batteries. In a complementary effort, researchers have also produced the first hybrid actuator or HYBAS system, with both an electroactive polymer and an electroactive ceramic that achieves enhanced displacement performance from a single power supply, greatly reducing electrical consumption while simultaneously improving mechanical displacement compared to current state-of-the-art actuators. "Actuators and transducers, the devices, can converge one energy form to another energy form.

00:01:01 For the actuators and transducers based on electromechanical mechanisms can converge mechanical energy to electrical energy or change electrical energy to mechanical energy." Automobile, aeronautics and even mobile communication industries could benefit from the innovative and unique HYBAS system and advanced transducers. "Portable communication devices. We can have the power supply within the system. You don't have to use a battery; you don't have to worry about the life of the battery. You don't have to charge every day. " Advanced actuators and transducers. More energy to drive devices with the added benefits of easy-adaptability and less electrical

00:01:51 consumption.