Title of the project: Tailoring the actuation characteristics of SMA/Polyimide sandwich-structured composite for its viability towards actuator development for MEMS and soft robotic systems.
About the project: The main focus of the project is to design and develop thin film SMA-Polyimide composite and investigate its viability in soft robotic application. SMA is considered to be low-bandwidth, large strain actuator restricting its application in high frequency under water and aerial soft robotic systems. We therefore propose a novel approach to fabricate thin film SMA-Polyimide sandwich-structured composite to realize the improvement in actuation frequency along with the actuation force to boost the load carrying capacity.
Funding agency: SERB – DST
Total project cost: ₹ 34,14,517 /-
Duration: 3 years
Date of sanction letter: 03 January 2022
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ravindra V. Taiwade, Assistant Professor (Grade-I), Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering