Seminar Announcement 12/6: Artificial muscles for MEMS, soft robotics, tunable optics & acoustics

  • 2018-11-30
  • 書報討論

主題(Topic)：


Artificial muscles for MEMS, soft robotics, tunable optics & acoustics
 

講者(Speaker)：

Dr. Lau Gih-Keong, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
 
時間(Date)：

12/6 (四)3:30pm – 5:00pm

地點(Venue)：

工程五館B1國際會議廳(EEB24)

Engineering Building 5 B1 International Conference Hall
 

Abstract:

Natural muscles are the drivers of animal locomotion, tunable vision and hearing while simultaneously being sensors for many physical parameters. This multifunctionality of lightweight and silent natural muscles is in contrary to electric motor or servo which is bulky, heavy, and cluttering while powering robotics system.  This motivates the recent research and development of artificial muscles   based on electroactive polymer actuators.   The needs of muscles-like actuator have recently spurred re-invention of Mckibben-like soft actuator based on pneumatic and hydraulic systems, and invention of smart polymeric materials for artificial muscles, which were published in Science and Nature.  Inspired by biological systems, my research group has been investigating the use of passive materials to make electro-active actuators to deliver multi-physical functions. We have developed some novel actuation principles: 1) powerful thermal micro-actuators, and 2) dielectric elastomer actuators, in addition to 3) spring-assisted electric motor. First, the thermal micro-actuators are powerful and fast to drive micro-positioning system in hard disk drive and smartphone camera autofocus, in replacement for a more conventional piezoelectric actuator or a voice coil motor. Second, we applied dielectric elastomer actuator to drive various bio-innspired applications, which include  bionic fingers for nimble gripping, a tunable lens for variable focus, a  smart window for transparency switching and broad-band sound absorption. Last but not least, we added spring to electric motor to improve the flight efficiency of flapping wings rivalling against a propeller.
 

About the speaker:

Dr. Lau Gih-Keong received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 2007, and the M.Eng. and B.Eng degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in 2000 and 1998 respectively. Dr Lau’s research focuses on micro-electro-mechanical systems, micro-actuators, dielectric elastomer actuators, soft robots, compliant mechanisms, flapping-wing micro air vehicles, and multi-functional windows based on micro-wrinkling. 
He is a recipient of a Meinhardt Book Prize in 1998 during his undergraduate study. He won twice the best poster awards in the workshops of Micromechanics Europe in 2005 and 2006 during his PhD study.  He received Tan Chin Tuan Fellowship in 2015 and was a visiting professor to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in June 2015 during his assistant professorship.   He is a recipient of 2017 MAE Service Award from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University.   He is an associate editor to the 2017 and 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017 and 2018). He was a member of international advisory boards in the International Conference - Smart and Multifunctional Materials, Devices, Structures (CIMTEC) in 2012 and 2016.