Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuators and Their Applications

A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Actuator Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2024 | Viewed by 1710

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Interests: SMA actuators; rehabilitation devices; soft robotics; robot control; sensors

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Guest Editor
Robotics Laboratory, Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, Carlos III University of Madrid, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
Interests: design and control of robotic exoskeletons for rehabilitation; emerging actuation technologies in robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Robotics Laboratory, Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, Carlos III University of Madrid, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
Interests: robotic rehabilitation; emerging actuators for robotics; SLAM; path planning; localization.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, emerging actuators such as shape memory alloy (SMA)-based actuators have made it possible to overcome the current limitations of conventional actuators by being integrated into various applications, including medical robotics, rehabilitation robotics, automotive and aerospace industry applications, and more.

Due to their promising properties, SMA-based actuators have received much attention from researchers, where topics related to materials, actuator design, and control are addressed to improve their performance depending on the final application.

This Special Issue addresses research on SMA-based actuators from fundamental studies to their final applications. Original research and review articles are recommended. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Control of SMA actuators;
  • Emerging design and fabrication of SMA actuators;
  • Performance assessment of SMA (e.g., electrical power consumption, efficiency);
  • Sensorless actuator;
  • SMA actuators for robotic applications.

Dr. Dorin Sabin Copaci
Prof. Dr. Maria Dolores Blanco Rojas
Prof. Dr. Luis Enrique Moreno Lorente
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • shape memory alloy actuator
  • actuator design
  • control
  • sensorless actuator
  • modeling

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 16004 KiB  
Article
A Novel Cooling Design for an Agonistic–Antagonistic SMA Tendon-Driven Actuator
by Renke Liu, Shuyao Zhang, Yusuke Baba and Hideyuki Sawada
Actuators 2023, 12(11), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/act12110415 - 07 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1250
Abstract
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit a unique property that undergoes deformation in response to temperature variation. This characteristic can be utilized via the application of a filiform SMA wire to tendon-driven robotic actuators for biomimetic joint movements. However, due to the inefficiencies in [...] Read more.
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit a unique property that undergoes deformation in response to temperature variation. This characteristic can be utilized via the application of a filiform SMA wire to tendon-driven robotic actuators for biomimetic joint movements. However, due to the inefficiencies in heat dissipation, conventional SMA tendon-driven actuators are characterized by their lower relaxation speeds than other actuators. This paper proposes a novel cooling design for an SMA tendon-driven actuator using thin-fin heat sinks based on a multi-layer wrapped SMA tendon design. In addition, the electric circuit and the controller are refined. Prototype devices are constructed to validate the performance of SMA-based actuators under PID control. The results indicate that the proposed design exceeds previous models in terms of relaxation performance by up to 5.8 times while also being able to stabilize at a target angle within 0.5 s under control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuators and Their Applications)
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