A dragline-forming mobile robot inspired by spiders.

Mobility of wheeled or legged machines can be significantly increased if they are able to move from a solid surface into a three-dimensional space. Although that may be achieved by addition of flying mechanisms, the payload fraction will be the limiting factor in such hybrid mobile machines for many applications. Inspired by spiders producing draglines to assist locomotion, the paper proposes an alternative mobile technology where a robot achieves locomotion from a solid surface into a free space. The technology resembles the dragline production pathway in spiders to a technically feasible degree and enables robots to move with thermoplastic spinning of draglines. As an implementation, a mobile robot has been prototyped with thermoplastic adhesives as source material of the draglines. Experimental results show that a dragline diameter range of 1.17-5.27 mm was achievable by the 185 g mobile robot in descending locomotion from the solid surface of a hanging structure with a power consumption of 4.8 W and an average speed of 5.13 cm min(-1). With an open-loop controller consisting of sequences of discrete events, the robot has demonstrated repeatable dragline formation with a relative deviation within -4% and a length close to the metre scale.

Active sensing system with in situ adjustable sensor morphology.

BACKGROUND: Despite the widespread use of sensors in engineering systems like robots and automation systems, the common paradigm is to have fixed sensor morphology tailored to fulfill a specific application. On the other hand, robotic systems are expected to operate in ever more uncertain environments. In order to cope with the challenge, it is worthy of note that biological systems show the importance of suitable sensor morphology and active sensing capability to handle different kinds of sensing tasks with particular requirements. METHODOLOGY: This paper presents a robotics active sensing system which is able to adjust its sensor morphology in situ in order to sense different physical quantities with desirable sensing characteristics. The approach taken is to use thermoplastic adhesive material, i.e. Hot Melt Adhesive (HMA). It will be shown that the thermoplastic and thermoadhesive nature of HMA enables the system to repeatedly fabricate, attach and detach mechanical structures with a variety of shape and size to the robot end effector for sensing purposes. Via active sensing capability, the robotic system utilizes the structure to physically probe an unknown target object with suitable motion and transduce the arising physical stimuli into information usable by a camera as its only built-in sensor. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The efficacy of the proposed system is verified based on two results. Firstly, it is confirmed that suitable sensor morphology and active sensing capability enables the system to sense different physical quantities, i.e. softness and temperature, with desirable sensing characteristics. Secondly, given tasks of discriminating two visually indistinguishable objects with respect to softness and temperature, it is confirmed that the proposed robotic system is able to autonomously accomplish them. The way the results motivate new research directions which focus on in situ adjustment of sensor morphology will also be discussed.

Free-space locomotion with thread formation

The paper presents a new concept of locomotion for wheeled or legged robots through an object-free space. The concept is inspired by the behaviour of spiders forming silk threads to move in 3D space. The approach provides the possibility of variation in thread diameter by deforming source material, therefore it is useful for a wider coverage of payload by mobile robots. As a case study, we propose a technology for descending locomotion through a free space with inverted formation of threads in variable diameters. Inverted thread formation is enabled with source material thermoplastic adhesive (TPA) through thermally-induced phase transition. To demonstrate the feasibility of the technology, we have designed and prototyped a 300-gram wheeled robot that can supply and deform TPA into a thread and descend with the thread from an existing hanging structure. Experiment results suggest repeatable inverted thread formation with a diameter range of 1.1-4.5 mm, and a locomotion speed of 0.73 cm per minute with a power consumption of 2.5 W. © 2013 IEEE.

耐热树脂的增强与增韧研究

耐热树脂或称特种工程塑料主要包括聚芳飒类、聚醚酮类、聚芳酷、液晶类、聚酞亚胺和聚苯硫醚等。长春应化所已获得有关聚芳醚酮（PEK-C），聚芳醚砜（PES-C）和聚酞亚胺（PEI）等特种工程塑料的专利12项。在特种工程塑料中，PEK-C，PES-C和PEI有着最高的机械强度（室温下的拉伸强度在100MPa以上）。PES-C和PEI的耐热等级最高（热变形温度分别为225℃和220-260℃）。PE工有极好的阻燃性（氧指数为47）和耐磨性。而PEK-C的加工性好、韧性高、耐磨损和抗电击穿等性质突出，其综合物性与英国ICI公司的聚醚醚酮（PEEK）相近，是良好的高性能复合材料基体树脂。具有优异综合物性的PEK-C、PES-C、PEI及其改性系列材料在机械、电子电气、军工、医疗及食品等许多领域有着广泛的应用前景。近年来，长春应化所在酞侧基聚芳醚酮和聚芳醚矾的结构一加工一物性关系及开发应用等方面作了大量的研究工作，主要涉及此两种聚合物的粘弹性、屈服行为、断裂行为、转变与松弛以及复合与共混等方面内容。这些研究工作表明，酞侧基聚芳醚酮和聚芳醚矾经过共混和复合改性能够具有更优异的使用性能，而且这些研究中的一些方法同样可以应用于其它耐热树脂的改性。高分子材料科学的发展趋势就是在更深层次上把握材料的结构特点及其与宏观物性间的相互关耽达到高分子分子设计和材料设计的目标，实现高性能化和高功能化使现有的高分子材料找到更广泛而合理的应用。工程塑料的高性能化是高分子材料科学近年来发展的一个主要方向。为满足航天航空、电子信息、汽车工业家用电器以及机械等多方面技术领域的需要，要求材料的机械性能、耐热性、耐腐蚀性和长期使用性等性能进一步提高。在现有工程塑料品种的基础上通过共混增韧、复合增强等改性方法使其成为高性能的结构材料，是高分子材料私｝学的前沿课题及重要任务。本文采用熔融加工的方法制备了PEK-C和PES-C耐热树脂的共混与复合材料，利用热分析、力学性能检测、微观形貌观察、加工性能检测等手段研究了共混物及复合材料的结构与性能。通过对PEK-C和PES-C的冲击断裂过程的研究，我们发现，两种材料在裂纹起始扩展时所能承受的最大应力值相同，但PES-C的裂纹引发（ti）和扩展（tp）所需时间仅是PEK-C的一半，此即PES-C的冲击强度（I）和断裂韧性（KIC）较低的原因。因此，如能延长裂纹引发和扩展的时间，也就是说如能扩大断裂过程区，抑制裂纹的早期形成就能达到增韧的目的。在PES-C的增韧研究方面，我们可以借鉴通用塑料的增韧方法，即在高聚物基体中，以适当的手段掺加第二相粒子，通过粒子的变形和引发基体在粒子周围产生剪切屈服或银纹化等作用机理，实现增韧目的。所不同的是，对PES-C类耐热树脂来说，实现增韧的同时应保持材料原有的高强度和高耐热性等优良险质。另一方面，由于耐热树脂的加工温度极高，适合于通用塑料的偶联剂等界面改性技术已不再适用于特种工程塑料。针对PES-C的增韧方法和机理的研究工作可归纳为以下三个方面：①刚性有机粒子（PPS，LCP等）增韧；②柔性有机粒子（UHMWPE）增韧；③刚性无机粒子（硅灰石）增韧。物理老化或结构松弛效应使得高聚物材料的结构和宏观物性随时间而发生变化。随时间的增长，PES-C和PES-C／PPS共混物的拉伸强度增加、冲击韧性减小，而且这种变化趋势表现出物理老化过程的自衰减特性。研究结果表明，PES-C／pps共棍物的结构松弛速率比PES-C慢。具有良好界面相互作用的PES一C／PPS共混物材料的强度和韧性始终高于PES-C纯组份聚合物。因此说，pES-C／PPS共混物不仅具有良好的短期性能，而且在高温下长期使用过程中，其力学性能将始终优于纯组份聚合物。我们研究了热固性聚酞亚胺预聚物（P01）增容聚芳醚酮／聚苯硫醚共混物的热学性能、力学性能、形态结构及加工性，对POI在聚芳醚酮／聚苯硫醚共混物中所起的增容作用机理进行了初步探讨。实验发现，PEK-C／PPS共混物在保持PEK一C原有的高强度和高模量的同时，加工流动性和韧性得到一定程度的改善。PEK-C／ppS／Pm三元共混物中，少量的POI能够控制PPS分散相的相区尺寸，防止分散相粒子的自凝聚，起到了增容剂的作用。热固性高聚物预聚体可用于增容热塑性高聚物共混体系，这种增容方法有其特殊性和新颖性，增容后的聚芳醚酮／聚苯硫醚共棍物的力学性能得以改善。利用纤维可以作为结晶性高聚物的异相成核剂的特性，将合适的结晶性高聚物与非晶高聚物共混，可以在在一定程度上改善非晶高聚物与纤维间的界面粘结，提高纤维增强效率。这种方法对PEK-C类耐热树脂尤为重要。通过与即S共混，玻纤增强PEK-C复合材料中纤维与基体间的界面粘结以及纤维的长径比明显增加，因而复合材料的强度和模量显著提高，而且加工流动性也得到一定程度的改善。从考虑综合物性的角度出发，利用结晶性高聚物改善纤维与非晶树脂基体间的界面粘结时，结晶性高聚物的用量存在一个最佳值。与PEEK／GF复合材料相比，PEK-C／PPS／GF复合材料在加工能耗、价格等方面存在很大优势，可以预期这一高性能复合材料可应用于制造高强度、高耐热、耐腐蚀、耐磨损、耐疲劳的往复运动部件、振动或转动等机械零部件。

纳米耐油型全硫化热塑性弹性体的制备与形态、结构及性能研究

本文以过氧化物为引发剂，采用反应挤出的方法，制备了甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酷官能化聚丙烯，采用化学滴定法和红外光谱法均证实了接枝共聚物的存在，并研究了反应条件对PP-g-GMA接枝率、接枝效率和熔体流动速率的影响，结果表明：1．当DCP含量一定时，随着单体含量的增加，接枝产物的接枝率出现了一个峰值。这表明一味地增加单体浓度未必有利于接枝率的提高；2．当GMA单体浓度一定时，PP-g-GMA的接枝率和熔融指数均随着引发剂含量的增加而逐渐增大，这表明引发剂浓度的增加在促进接枝反应的同时也引入了更多的副反应；3．助剂苯乙烯的加入大大地提高了PP-g-GMA的接枝率和接枝效率，且产物的熔融指数与纯聚丙烯相比变化很小，这表明助剂苯乙烯的加入有效地抑制了副反应的发生，且促进了接枝反应的发生。研究了官能化聚丙烯PP-g-GMA的形态、结构与性能，结果表明：1．官能化对聚丙烯的结晶行为有显著的影响，不仅结晶温度和熔融温度有显著的增加，而且结晶度也有一定程度的增加；2．纯聚丙烯的结晶结构为典型的a型结晶，而接枝聚丙烯的结晶则以a型结晶为主，并出现了少量的Y型结晶；3．采用Avrami方程可以很好的描述官能化聚丙烯的初级结晶行为，纯聚丙烯和官能化聚丙烯的 tl几和tmax均随着结晶温度的增加而增加，这表明它们的结晶过程由成核控制；4．采用Jeziornn法研究了官能化聚丙烯的非等温结晶动力学，非等温结晶过程可以分为初级结晶和次级结晶两部分，在次级结晶阶段，曲线偏离了初级结晶部分的直线，表明在次级结晶阶段，官能化聚丙烯的成核与生长方式发生了变化；5．采用DMA研究了官能化聚丙烯的动态热机械行为，官能化后聚丙烯的耐热性提高了，而且随着接枝率的升高，耐热性又有进一步的提高。以官能化聚丙烯作为反应型增容剂，采用反应共棍的方法，制备了耐油型全 硫化CNBR/PP热塑性弹性体，并研究了热塑性弹性体的形态、结构与性能。主要 结果如下：1．采用红外光谱法表征了梭基丁睛粉末橡胶和PP-g-GMA间的反应。 2．透射电子显微镜和原子力显微镜结果表明，当一部分聚丙烯被官能化聚丙烯替代后，体系中橡胶粒子的尺寸明显变小了，分布也更加均一了。在CNBR/PP-g-GMIA 体系中，原位增容反应形成的共聚物位于cNBR和PP-g-GMA两相的界面处。3．加入少量接枝聚丙烯后共混物的力学性能，如拉伸强度、100％定伸强度和断裂伸长 率均有明显的提高，而且，对于CNBR/PPPP-g-GMA共混物，只需少量的界面增 容剂便可以使两相界面达到饱和并达到较好的增容效果。4．动力学和热力学因素 均影响共混物中聚丙烯的结晶行为，在CNBR/PP体系中，动力学因素占主导地位，而CNBR/PP-g-GMA体系中热力学因素占主导作用。另外，采用Avromi方程描述了CNBR/PP和CNBR/PP-g-GMA体系的等温结晶动力学。5．接枝聚丙烯的加入阻碍了接枝聚丙烯与梭基丁睛橡胶两相间的界面层滑移，因此提高了体系的粘度。以官能化聚丙烯作为反应型增容剂，采用反应共混的方法，制备了耐油型全硫化NBR/PP热塑性弹性体，并研究了热塑性弹性体的形态、结构与性能。主要结果如下：1．采用红外光谱法表征了官能化聚丙烯与端氨基液体丁睛橡胶间的反应，但仅从红外光谱的结果很难断定产物的分子结构；2．采用透射电子显微镜观察了NBR/PP共混物的微观形态，结果表明，NBR／PP共混物体系中除了含有直径为几十纳米的小橡胶粒子外，还有直径为几微米甚至几十微米的大橡胶粒子存在，且随着橡胶含量的增加，体系中大橡胶粒子的数量增多了，小橡胶粒子的分布也变得密集了；3．采用差示扫描量热法表征了NB侧PP共混物的受限结晶行为，结果表明，（1）在220℃的高温下，部分丁睛橡胶分子产生了一定的运动，从而限制了聚丙烯分子的运动，使聚丙烯分子产生了受限结晶行为；（2）随着橡胶含量的增加，橡胶粒子间的距离逐渐变小，这使得位于橡胶粒子间隙的聚丙烯分子的运动受到限制，因此聚丙烯表现出受限结晶的行为；（3）受限的聚丙烯分子更倾向于Y型结晶。

PP／极性聚合物共混体系增容及结构与性能研究

本文的主要工作如下：1、本文提出用化学方法将聚丙烯（PP）接枝马来酸酐（MA）的方法，得到了较高接枝率的PP－MA接枝物，MA的接枝状态主要取决于反应条件。2．本文合成了（PP－MA）-g-PEO梳型接枝物，接枝物中PP、PEO结晶性能明显与纯PP、PEO不同。3．采用溶液共混方法制备了PP／PMMA、PP／TPU、PP／PA－12、PP／PEO四种共混物。从实验上证明了PP－MA及（PP－MA）-g-MA两种接枝物对上述四种共混物增容的机理。4．共混物中极性聚合物对PP结晶具有两种不同作用：成核促进作用和结晶阻碍作用。5．在PP／PA－12、PP／PEO这类双晶共混体系中，组分之间相互作用比较复杂，尤其是高熔点组分对低熔点组分的影响，如取向附生作用。6．结晶分极是含有结晶组分不相容共混物的普遍具有的现象，它与组分配比、异种聚合物成核能力及组分之间相容性有必然联系。7、PP－MA是PP／TPU、PP／NBR－26有效增容剂，开发上述两种共混物材料势在必行。

Syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene fibers produced by electrospinning

Syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene (s-PB) is a typical thermoplastic elastomer with various applications because of its high reactivity. In the past, it is difficult to form s-PB fibers with a diameter below 10 mu m because of the limitation of the conventional method such as melt spinning. Here, we report for the first time on the production of s-PB nanofibers by using a simple electrospinning method. Ultrafine s-PB fibers without beads were electrospun from s-PB solutions in dichloromethane and characterized by environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). At 4 wt.% concentration of s-PB, the average diameter of s-PB was about 130 nm. We found that dichloromethane was a unique suitable solvent for the electrospinning of s-PB fibers, and the structure of syndiotactic was changed through the electrospinning process.

Reversibly strain-tunable elastomeric photonic crystals

Reversibly strain-tunable polymeric photonic crystals made of thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE) were fabricated by using the self-assembled silica opals as templates. The stop band of the polymeric photonic crystal locates at the near infrared (IR) regime in its transmission spectrum, and exhibits a blue shift with the increase of the incident angle. Because of the elasticity of the TPEE, the stop band of the TPEE photonic crystal can also be reversibly tuned at ambient temperature through to and fro uniaxially or biaxially stretching and recovering by changing the lattice spacing and the symmetry of the crystal along (1 1 1) plane.

Electrically conductive, melt-processed ternary blends of polyaniline/dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid, ethylene/vinyl acetate, and low-density polyethylene

Although polyaniline (PANI) has high conductivity and relatively good environmental and thermal stability and is easily synthesized, the intractability of this intrinsically conducting polymer with a melting procedure prevents extensive applications. This work was designed to process PANI with a melting blend method with current thermoplastic polymers. PANI in an emeraldine base form was plasticized and doped with dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) to prepare a conductive complex (PANI-DBSA). PANI-DBSA, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and an ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) were blended in a twin-rotor mixer. The blending procedure was monitored, including the changes in the temperature, torque moment, and work. As expected, the conductivity of ternary PANI-DBSA/LDPE/EVA was higher by one order of magnitude than that of binary PANI-DBSA/LDPE, and this was attributed to the PANI-DBSA phase being preferentially located in the EVA phase. An investigation of the morphology of the polymer blends with high-resolution optical microscopy indicated that PANI-DBSA formed a conducting network at a high concentration of PANI-DBSA. The thermal and crystalline properties of the polymer blends were measured with differential scanning calorimetry. The mechanical properties were also measured.

Polyimides from isomeric diphenylthioether dianhydrides

3,3',4,4'-Diphenylthioether dianhydride (4,4'-TDPA), 2,3,3',4'-diphenylthioether dianhydride (3,4'-TDPA), and 2,2',3,3-diphenylthioether dianhydride (3,3'TDPA) were synthesized from 3-chlorophthalic anhydride and 4-chlorophthalic anhydride. A series of polyimides derived from the isomeric diphenylthioether dianhydrides with several diamines were prepared. The properties, such as the solubility, thermal and mechanical behavior, dynamic mechanical behavior, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, and permeability to some gases, were compared among the isomeric polyimides. Both 3,3'-TDPA- and 3,4-TDPA-based polyimides had good solubility in polar aprotic solvents and phenols. The 5% weight loss temperatures of all the obtained polyimides was near 500 degrees C in nitrogen. The glass-transition temperatures decreased according to the order of the polyimides based on 3,3'-TDPA, 3,4'-TDPA, and 4,4'-TDPA. The 3,4'-TDPA-based polyimides had the best permeability and lowest permselectivity, whereas the 4,4'-TDPA-based polyimides had the highest permselectivity and the lowest permeability of the three isomers. Furthermore, the rheological properties of thermoplastic polyimide resins based on the isomeric dipbenylthioether dianhydrides were investigated, and they showed that polyimide 3,4'-TDPA/4,4-oxydianiline had the lowest melt viscosity among the isomers; this indicated that the melt processibility had been greatly improved.

Stress transfer and damage evolution simulations of fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites

The stress transfer from broken fibers to unbroken fibers in fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer-matrix composites and thermoplastic polymer-matrix composites was studied using a detailed finite element model. In order to check the validity of this approach, an epoxy-matrix monolayer composite was used as thermosetting polymer-matrix composite and a polypropylene (PP)-matrix monolayer composite was used as thermoplastic polymer-matrix composite, respectively. It is found that the stress concentrations near the broken fiber element cause damage to the neighboring epoxy matrix prior to the breakage of other fibers, whereas in the case of PP-matrix composites the fibers nearest to the broken fiber break prior to the PP matrix damage, because the PP matrix around the broken fiber element yields. In order to simulate composite damage evolution, a Monte Carlo technique based on a finite element method has been developed in the paper. The finite element code coupled with statistical model of fiber strength specifically written for this problem was used to determine the stress redistribution. Five hundred samples of numerical simulation were carried out to obtain statistical deformation and failure process of composites with fixed fiber volume fraction.

Embossing of polymers using a thermosetting polymer mold made by soft lithography

In this article we present a mechanical pattern transfer process where a thermosetting polymer mold instead of a metal, dielectric, ceramic, or semiconductor master made by conventional lithography was used as the master to pattern thermoplastic polymers in hot embossing lithography. The thermosetting polymer mold was fabricated by a soft lithography strategy, microtransfer molding. For comparison, the thermosetting polymer mold and the silicon wafer master were both used to imprint the thermoplastic polymer, polymethylmethacrylate. Replication of the thermosetting polymer mold and the silicon wafer master was of the same quality. This indicates that the thermosetting polymer mold could be used for thermoplastic polymer patterning in hot embossing lithography with high fidelity.

Effect of cavitations on brittle-ductile transition of particle toughened thermoplastics

In this study, we established a correlation between cavitations volume and the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) for particle toughened thermoplastics. The brittle-ductile transition temperature (T-BD) was calculated as a function of T* and interparticle distance (ED), respectively, where T* was a parameter related to the volume of cavitations. The results showed that the smaller the cavitations volume, the higher the brittle-ductile transition temperature. The calculations correlated well with the experimental data. With respect to rubber particle, the rigid particle was too hard to be voided during deformation, thereby the TED of the blend was much higher than that of rubber particle toughened thermoplastic. This was a main reason that rubber particle could toughen thermoplastics effectively, whereas rigid particle could not.