Sample Solution

ne application of IPMC is in aquatic robotics, because of its waterproof properties. Research conducted by Kim B. et.al, aims to use thin membrane IPMC as a tadpole robot fin, and investigate the effectiveness of using such material in aquatic robot.

They start by cutting the membranes to tail shape and attached it as an extension of the fin of the tadpole. The fin itself is made of 2 materials which are PDMS polymer and Pet film. The IPMC fin extension was then attached to those fin which will bend depending on how big the electricity applied thus create thrust.

The result is actually quite surprising. They found that the speed of tadpole movement on the water is 23.6 mm/s with PDMS polymer and 13.5 with PET fin. Fin made of one material could provide almost double a speed of movement of fin made of another material. This also shows that the bending magnitude provided by IPMC is strong enough to actually provide movement to the tadpole dummy.

Critic

Article 4 – Fish Robot
Methodology

Another application of IPMC in the area of underwater robotic is robotic fish. Similar to the research that has been conducted above, a group of researchers, Chen Z., Shatara S., and Tan X. use IPMC as a fish fin, and investigate the maneuver of the fish with IPMC fin attached to the plastic fin. However, in this experiment, they are focusing on the steady state speed of the fish instead of just comparing which material might perform best. The methodology is almost the same as the tadpole robot research, they both are using IPMC as fin, and using laser displacement sensor to obtain maneuvering speed.

To begin with, desired shape and size of extension fin is attached to the passive fin