Software Development for Isotonic and Isometric Electro-Chemo Measurement System

Abstract

Ionic electroactive polymers, belonging to a group of artificial muscles, are materials which have been studied in aim of creating an actuator that has characteristics of a natural muscle. Natural muscle is considered to be a highly optimized and efficient system due to its reoccurring similar structure in many organisms. The main goal in this wide research field is to investigate how artificial muscles can replace or repair for example limbs, hearts or muscles in future applications. Artificial muscles are mostly compared with electrochemical properties, efficiency in strain, stress and durability. Often a measurement setup is used that integrates devices like force sensing transducer, linear actuator and a potentiostat in order to measure muscles electrical and mechanical characteristics with a single system of devices. The main goal of this work was to develop software and a graphical user interface for carrying out isometric and isotonic measurements combined with electrochemical stimulus on ionic electroactive polymer samples. As a result of authors work a set of algorithms that automate experiment processes, simplify the use of software and refine isotonic measurement results were created, implemented and successfully tested within time span of one and a half semesters on a setup, which was provided as a hardware basis for this work.