Available Technology
New actuators generate more motion in smaller devices less expensively
Technology:
Millimeter scale SMA actuator
Markets Addressed
Actuators are mechanical devices that make other devices move. They are used in electromechanical systems, smart devices, and scientific instruments in medicine, biotechnology, information technology, space, manufacturing, military, microtechnology, and nanotechnology. As these systems, devices, and instruments decrease in size, actuators must also shrink, consume less power, and cost less. At the same time, they must generate more power and be easy to make.
Drs. Kyu-Jin Cho, Elliot Wright Hawkes, and Robert J. Wood have developed an actuator that meets these new criteria. The basis of their new actuator is a new system for annealing shape memory alloys (SMAs). These SMAs are small and precise, allowing the actuators they form to be smaller and more precise, as well as scalable, inexpensive, and powerful. These SMA actuators can be used in these areas:
• Autonomous and controlled in vivo diagnostic devices that are equipped with video and other sensors
• Small, unmanned aquatic sensing devices for homeland security applications
• Environmental monitoring
Innovations and Advantages
The SMA actuator is a millimeter scale actuator that can generate motion. Drs. Cho, Hawkes, and Wood developed a novel system for annealing shape memory alloys (SMA) that create a spring with discrete contraction lengths. Compared to current all-or-nothing'' SMA springs, this new SMA spring is robust and can create accurate contraction lengths that mimic the motion of biological systems, in which muscles contract to specified lengths. This mimicking capability is especially useful in micro-robotics, where electric motors are no longer feasible. This new SMA actuator has a simple design, can be fabricated easily, is robust, is inexpensive to produce, and is scalable.
Additional Information
Intellectual Property Status: Patent(s) pending
Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory
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Inventor(s):
Cho, Kyu-Jin
Hawkes, Elliot Wright
Wood, Robert J.
Categories:
For further information, please contact:
Sam Liss, Director of Business Development
(617) 495-4371
Reference Harvard Case #3156