The ionic liquid gel (ILG), a new type of soft actuator material, is a mixture of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate\n(BMIMBF4), hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), diethoxyacetophenone (DEAP), and ZrO2 polymerized into a gel state under\nultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The soft actuator structure consists of a layer of ionic liquid polymer gel sandwiched between\ntwo layers of activated carbon capped with gold foil. The volume of the cationic BMIM +in the ionic liquid BMIMBF4 is much\nlarger than that of the anionic BF4-. When voltages are applied to both sides of the actuator, the anions and cations move toward\nthe anode and cathode of the electrode, respectively, under the electric field. The volume of the ILG cathode side therefore\nexpands, and the volume of the ILG anode side shrinks, hence bending the entire actuator toward the anode side. The Ogden\nmodel was selected as the hyperelastic constitutive model to study the mechanical properties of the ILG by nonlinear analysis. As\nthe ILG is an ideal material for the preparation of a supercapacitor, the equivalent circuit of the ILG can be modeled by the\nsupercapacitor theory to identify the transfer function of the soft actuator. The central pattern generator (CPG) control is widely\nused in the area of biology, and CPGs based on bioinspired control methods have attracted great attention from researchers\nworldwide. After the continuum soft actuator is discretized, the CPG-based bioinspired method can be used to control the soft\nrobot drivers. According to the simulation analysis results, the soft actuator can be smooth enough to reach the specified location.
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