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| Engineering Design & Optimization Group |
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332 Leonhard Building Penn State University University Park, PA 16802 (814) 863-7523 |
A collaborative effort by faculty in: Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering and Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering |
  
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| About | Will Aguilera | ||||||
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Title: Research Assistant
Department: Mechanical Engineering Office: 332 Leonhard Building Phone: (814) 863-7523 Fax: (814) 863-4745 E-mail: wma106@psu.edu Project Title: Design and Modeling of a Steerable End-Effector for Minimally Invasive Surgery Using Piezo-electric Material. Project Supervisor: Dr. Mary Frecker Project Description: An analytical model has been developed to design a new, active, steerable end-effector. The end-effector design consists of a number of bimorph actuator sections in series with each active layer being individually controlled. Each section may behave as either a bimorph or a unimorph actuator, where in the case of unimorph, one of the active layers is passive. By varying the strength and direction of the electric field across each section, a prescribed overall shape can be achieved to allow the user to steer the device. The focus of this paper is on a theoretical model of the end-effector using strain energy methods for the quasi-static force-deflection behavior. A program has been written in Matlab to predict the strain energy for each segment, and Castigliano’s theorem is applied to solve for the deflections and forces of each segment. The user may vary the strength and direction of the electric field applied to each segment to achieve various overall shapes along the length of the end-effector. Previously derived analytical models for single-segment bimorph and unimorph actuators have been used to verify the model. Ongoing work includes development of an optimization method to predict the optimal end-effector design and applied electric fields for a particular shape of the end-effector. The current model assumes piezoceramic material behavior, however, another goal is to incorporate electro-active polymer (EAP) material behavior to allow for larger deflections. The target application for this steerable device is a small-scale smart surgical instrument for minimally invasive surgery. Project Sponsor: Charles Culpeper Foundation and the NIH
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