Fabrication and characterization of IPMC actuated wing for flapping motion of butterfly

In this paper, we designed and demonstrated an IPMC actuated wing for mimicking flapping motion of a butterfly. Unlike other insects, such as dragonfly, housefly, mosquito etc. with high frequency of vibration (>30Hz on flying), the flapping times of butterfly wing is less than ten times. That’s to say, the frequency of butterfly wing is lower than 10Hz. So it is feasible that utilizing IPMC actuator with excellent advantage of low frequency response to imitate the flapping motion of butterfly. Firstly, to improve the frequency response of IPMC actuator, we fabricated the strip shaped IPMC with the thickness less than 100μm and Au electroplating was employed in the preparation process. Secondly, IPMC actuated wing and biomimetic butterfly fully made of IPMC were designed and fabricated. Finally, we measured and evaluated the deformations, block forces and lift forces of the flapping wing. Experimental results demonstrated that thin IPMC exhibits a large flapping with light weight, which is more suitable for flapping wing.