22nd International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (Busan, Korea)

Professor Maurizio Porfiri has been invited as one of the Plenary Speakers to the 22nd International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS2022) in Busan, Korea.

Prof. Porfiri’s talk “Modeling ionic polymer metal composites: where we are and where we should be” will be presented on Nov. 29, 20:40-21:30 EST.

Ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) are a promising class of soft active materials. Their high compliance, low actuation voltage, and ability to operate in wet environments have motivated two decades of intensive research on IPMC actuators. While we have witnessed several breakthroughs in the technology of IPMCs, from additive manufacturing of IPMCs to IPMC-based robots, our understanding of the physical underpinnings of their actuation remains elusive. There is a paucity of pedictive, continuum physically-based models to investigate IPMC actuation and sensing. Presently, the literature relies on either black-box lumped models, whose parameters are experimentally identified from data, or phenomenological distributed models, constructed upon classical beam theory. In this sense, we know little about multiaxial deformations elicited by counterions’ diffusion and electromigration through the ionomer. In this talk, we discuss recent progress by my group on a physics-based modeling framework that describes the complex chemoelectromechanical behavior of IPMCs. The proposed framework successfully resolves interface phenomena taking place in the vicinity of the electrodes along with a number of key non-idealities that challenge our intuition and pave the way to new design approaches.

More information about the conference and how to register: https://2022.iccas.org