JPH0650950B2 - Actuator - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an actuator using a mechanochemical substance that causes mechanical deformation due to a chemical change, and particularly to a structure for improving its response speed.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Traditionally, actuators have long been like motors,
The one based on electromagnetic force was used. However, these devices require a mechanical body such as a magnetic body and a coil, and have a drawback that the structure is complicated and the system becomes large-scale. For example, even if you have a small robot arm, if you attach a motor, speed reducer, etc. to each joint, the total weight of the motors connected to the tip will eventually concentrate at the root, and as a whole arm Looking at it, the weight of the actuator such as the motor cannot be ignored. On the other hand, the muscles of living organisms are extremely excellent in that they are lightweight and can be operated in a complicated manner, but it is difficult to manufacture them by engineering. However, research has been continued for a long time in search of materials that artificially have the same functions and characteristics as muscles.

One of the characteristics close to such characteristics is the ion concentration,
An actuator based on a so-called mechanochemical mechanism, in which a chemical structure of a material is changed by a driving source such as light and strain is generated due to the change, has been considered. It has been found that the length and volume of the material itself changes depending on the driving source, and the strain amount exceeds 10% and the ratio of generated force to weight exceeds 1000 times. For example, in the case of a monomer containing a spirobenzopyran group, the material undergoes contraction of nearly 10% when irradiated with ultraviolet rays, while it swells when irradiated with long-wavelength visible light. This material is currently being tested, and it has been confirmed that it is possible to pull an object 200 times its own weight. It is considered that, by irradiation with ultraviolet rays, the chemical formulas are the same, but the chemical formulas are different from each other, and it is considered that the length and volume change with the structural change. As described above, mechanochemical substances are attracting attention as having similar characteristics although their mechanisms are largely different. However, as far as it is known so far, no one with a fast response time is known. With the mechanochemical substances reported so far, it takes 1 second to several minutes from the trigger to respond, and the response time of tens of milliseconds or less required for practical use has not been realized. As described above, it has been considered that a mechanochemical substance cannot have a fast response time as a drawback.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks,
It is intended to provide a mechanochemical actuator having a structure with a fast response time without losing the characteristics of the mechanochemical substance.

[Outline of Invention]

The present invention comprises an actuator element made of a polymer monomer whose shape changes due to a change in chemical structure, and a fixing means for fixing a plurality of the actuator elements with a predetermined gap therebetween, and the actuator is provided in the gap. An actuator characterized in that a medium for changing a chemical structure of an element is configured to pass therethrough.

Example of Invention

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. First
FIG. 1 is a structural diagram showing an embodiment of an actuator according to the present invention. Since the mechanochemical substance is generally a polymer, its shape can be formed relatively freely.
The mechanochemical substance is made into an elongated shape beforehand. This is called an actuator element (1). Both ends of the plurality of actuator elements are adhered to the common fixture (2) in such a manner that they are spaced from each other.

Furthermore, a trigger material of mechanochemical substance is allowed to pass between the actuator elements (1). The trigger material is, for example, a mechanochemical substance whose pH is the solvent.
In the case of polyacrylic acid (PAA) cross-linked with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) which causes distortion by change, it is hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide solution, and the spirobenzopyran group-containing monomer is a mechanochemical substance (photoisomerization reaction). In the case of), ultraviolet rays hit the trigger material.

As a method of fixing the actuator element to the common fixing tool, as shown in FIG. 2, the both end surfaces of the actuator element are bonded to the fixing tool with an adhesive (3), or the fixing method is divided as shown in FIG. A method of sandwiching and fixing the actuator elements with the tool (4) and a method of adhering the actuator elements to each other via the spacers (5) as shown in FIG. 4 are considered.

However, the structure is not necessarily limited to this, and any method may be used as long as the fibrous actuator elements are fixed to each other with a space therebetween.

An example of configuring a robot arm using this actuator will be described with reference to FIG. Two arms (6), (7)
Are joined by a universal joint (9), and the actuator according to the present invention is adhered to both sides thereof. When moving the arm (6) to the left as illustrated in FIG.
The actuator (11) supplies the trigger material so that the actuator (11) is stretched so as to contract (10). For example, when the mechanochemical substance is a monomer containing a spirobenzopyran group, the actuator (10) is irradiated with ultraviolet rays and the actuator (11)
The arm (6) moves to the left when it is exposed to visible light. If the trigger material is liquid, the actuator (10), (1
1) is wrapped with a separate flexible pipe, and liquids with different ion pH concentrations corresponding to contraction and extension are flowed.

〔The invention's effect〕

Originally, the reaction rate of the mechanochemical substance itself is high. The conventional mechanochemical substances have a long response time because it takes a long time for the trigger material to reach a substance that should undergo a chemical reaction. According to the structure of the present invention, since the mechanochemical substance is in a fibrous shape, the surface area is increased, and the trigger material does not penetrate into the mechanochemical substance to reach each portion but directly contact the surface, so that the response time is increased. Becomes dramatically shorter.

Further, by constructing the actuator as an assembly of elements in this way, the number can be increased in applications where the load is large, and can be connected in series in the longitudinal direction in applications where a large stroke is required. . As a result, it becomes possible to make a large number of actuator elements having the same standard, and to use the actuator elements as desired.

[Other Embodiments of the Invention]

The gist of the present invention is that fibers are used to increase the response speed of the actuator so that the trigger material reaches each portion quickly. For this purpose, it is desirable to further form the actuator element into a pipe shape. As a method of forming a pipe-shaped actuator element, for example, a thin cylinder (13) is made of wax and a spirobenzopyran group-containing monomer film (12) is coated around it, and finally the wax inside is dissolved and removed with alcohol. To do. By doing so, it becomes possible to easily form thin pipe-shaped fibers. The central cylindrical rod is not limited to wax, and any material that can be dissolved in liquid, gas, etc. can be used. Although the method for producing a pipe-shaped actuator element has been shown by taking a spirobenzopyran group-containing monomer as an example, the method is not limited to this, and other mechanochemical substances are basically polymeric substances. The manufacturing method can be used by appropriately selecting the material of the central cylindrical rod and the kind of the liquid for dissolution.

Further, this pipe is not limited to a cylindrical shape and may be a hexagonal column or the like. In particular, a hexagonal column has a so-called honeycomb shape with no clearance when bundled.

Further, particularly in the case of a mechanochemical substance due to a photoisomerization reaction, since the trigger material is light energy such as ultraviolet light, as shown in FIG. 7, a light guide or an optical fiber (14) with a relatively large amount of scattering is used as a fibrous actuator element ( 15)
There is also a method in which the structure is such that the trigger light is introduced from the outside by fixing them together in a bundle together with.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a basic structure of an actuator according to the present invention, FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are views showing a method of fixing an actuator element, FIG. 5 is an application example of the actuator, and FIG. 6 is a pipe shape. FIG. 7 is a view showing a manufacturing method of the actuator element, and FIG. 7 is a view of a bundle-like structure of the optical fiber and the actuator element. 1 ... Actuator element, 2 ... Fixing device, 6,
7 ... Arm, 10, 11 ... Actuator, 14 ...
… Optical fiber.

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Chiaki Tanuma 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Inside Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. Research Institute (72) Inventor Hisano Yoshino 1 Komukai-Toshi-cho, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. Research Institute (72) Inventor Nobuto Matsuhir 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachi-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. Research Institute (72) Inventor Isao Hoshino Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture 1 Komukai Toshiba-cho, Sachiku-ku, Tokyo (56) References, Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-60-93181 (JP, A) JP-B-58-17782 (JP, B2) Journal of Polymer Science, Vol. 13, No. 10 (octobar1975) P. 2223 ~ 2231

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An actuator element made of a polymer monomer whose shape is changed by a change in chemical structure, and a fixing means for fixing a plurality of the actuator elements with a predetermined gap provided therebetween, An actuator characterized in that a medium for changing a chemical structure of an actuator element is configured to pass therethrough. 2. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the actuator element has a hollow shape, and the medium passes through the hollow portion. 3. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the actuator element is changed by irradiation of light. 4. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the actuator element is irradiated with visible light or ultraviolet light. 5. An optical fiber that transmits and scatters light, and a chemical structure changes and a shape changes by irradiation of light.
An actuator comprising: an actuator element made of a polymer monomer; and a fixing means for fixing the optical fiber and the actuator element adjacent to each other, wherein light passes through the optical fiber.