Actuators regulate motion in manufacturing and industrial automation by applying an excitation force or torque. Conventional actuators do have their advantages; however, they have multiple components (prone to wear and tear), are expensive during maintenance, bulky, and suffer from backlashes. Therefore, smart-material-based actuators have been increasingly proposed to overcome such shortcomings. Shape memory alloy (SMA) is generally considered for such applications due to its high power-to-weight ratio, noise-free, energy-efficient operation, and facilitating miniaturization. The current research exploits the advantages of the pennate musculature with the properties of SMA to develop a bipennate SMA-based rotary actuator. Pennate muscle fibers are aligned obliquely to the muscle line of action, enabling fiber force to be coupled to macro-level muscle force, resulting in increased force output. The study presents an ergonomic-design-integration-framework of an SMA-driven rotary actuator. The lightweight gearless actuator has drivability without backlash, compatible with a rhombus-based-compliant power transmission system. An analytical model of the bipennate SMA-based rotary actuator has been developed and experimentally validated. The new actuator delivers at least twice the actuation torque (2.1 N-m) compared to the SMA-based rotary actuators reported in the literature. The actuator also delivers a high associated angular displacement ranging from 60°-70°. The actuator design parameters have been optimized by implementing a constrained gradient descent algorithm such that the output torque, stroke, and efficiency of the actuator system can be tailored as per the requirement and application. The actuator has varied applications, from healthcare devices to next-generation space robots.
Periodic pigging of pipelines is essential for the inspection and maintenance of the gas pipeline network. Undetected cracks can be detrimental to pipelines and can often compromise the integrity of the pipeline. Pigging operation requires the pipeline inspection gauges to move at a moderately low yet uniform speed to inspect the defects, including corrosion, cracks, and deposits, developed in the pipeline after prolonged service. The speed of the pipe health monitoring robot (PHMR) can attain an undesirable high magnitude due to fluctuations in pressurized gas flow conditions prevailing in the pipelines. The high travel speed results in aliasing, leading to a consistent sampling of error-prone inspection data. The present study explores and expands on the previous speed control units by developing an innovative method of a novel speed control system based on the combination of deflector bypass flow and hydraulic brake mechanisms and experimentally validating it for PHMR. The speed control system developed is highly responsive to the changes in the speed of the PHMR since the incompressible nature of the brake fluid makes instantaneous transmission of pressure changes for the braking action possible. The modular nature of the developed speed control system enables it to be attached to any wheel suspension assembly-based PHMR and has been reported to passively regulate any undesirable high-speed spikes maximum by 51% within the acceptable range. The system is operated without a power supply, making it highly safe while operating in inflammable gas pipelines and a cost-effective and reliable solution that can help in accurate, effective, and seamless inspection of the gas pipelines spread over a large area of the pipeline network.
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