Muhammad Farid Shaari

Feasibility studies of Arduino microcontroller usage for IPMC actuator control

This paper investigates the usage of Arduino microcontroller to control closed loop of Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuator response designed for compact underwater application. We demonstrate control of single IPMC actuator by PID controller using MATLAB/Simulink Arduino Input Output (ArduinoIO) support package. Experimental results show that the microcontroller able to differentiate response speed, stability and tracking error of different thicknesses of IPMC actuator when stimulated by multiple voltage waves and frequencies. Based on step signal and square waves tracking performance results, thinner IPMC (t1) has more than 5 times respond speed than thicker IPMC (t2). However, IPMC t1 has lower steady-state stability and more sensitive to external noise compared to IPMC t2 due to IPMC actuator mechanism factors and current Arduino setup limitation such as low sampling rate. For sinusoidal waves tracking analysis, IPMC t2 with lower frequency reference input shows minimum erms error (3.12 %), while IPMC t2 with higher frequency contains highest erms error (28.70 %). Therefore, added with further improvements in improving analog read sampling rate and analog write resolution, Arduino microcontroller can accurately control and analyse the IPMC actuator, thus manage to replace expensive and bulky current DAQ hardware.

2D Contractile Water Jet Thruster Characterization for Bio-Inspired Underwater Robot Locomotion

This research was conducted to analyze the thrust performance generated from a two dimensional contractile water jet thruster (CWJT). The main aim of this research is to investigate the relation and reaction between the input parameters of the contractile water jet thruster. The major parameter of this study is the actuating force as the input and the thrust force as the output. In addition to these parameters, nozzle area and fluid velocity influence were also considered in the investigation. Two pneumatic cylinders were applied to actuate the contraction. Thrust force was measured by both experimentally and theoretically. Generally the increment of the contraction force increases the thrust force. However, generated thrust at different contraction force depends on the size of the nozzle.

Fabrication and Characterization of IPMC Actuator for Underwater Micro Robot Propulsor

The usage of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) actuator as the propulsor for underwater robot has been worked out by many scientists and researchers. IPMC actuator had been selected due to its advantages such as low energy consumption, low operation noise and ability to work underwater. This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of the IPMC actuator. The IPMC actuator samples had been fabricated using electroless plating for three different thickness and lengths. The characterization was conducted to determine the influence of the thickness, length, input frequency, drive voltage and orientation angle on the tip force and output frequency. The results show that IPMC thickness has significant influence on the tip force generation and lower input frequency would results wider displacement. The recorded results are essential as future reference in developing the propulsor for the underwater robot.

Conceptual design and preliminary analysis on bio-inspired squid micro AUV

This paper proposed a novel design prototype of micro autonomous underwater vehicle (uAUV) which utilizes contractile water jet thruster instead of motor driven rotary blade propeller as the propulsion system to ensure its stealthily characteristic. However, the nett thrust force could not be achieved if drag force have not been determined yet. In this research, CFD simulation technique was utilized to analyze the fluid dynamics that contribute to the drag force of the designed uAUV. The results from this analysis show the pressure distribution on the uAUV body, fluid velocity pattern, maximum shear stress location on the uAUV body as well as skin friction distribution. The increment of fluid velocity had increased the drag force value exponentially. Besides, the conducted stress analysis had shown the highest stress location of the contractile actuator was near the actuator clamping area.

Design Consideration of Bio-Inspired Contractible Water-Jet Propulsor for Mini Autonomous Underwater Robot

The main aim of this paper is to discuss the general design considerations for contractible water-jet propulsion system for mini underwater robot locomotion. The motivation of this paper is the problems that occurred to the motorized turbine blade propeller for a lower than centimeter scale underwater robot. Contractile water-jet propulsion mechanism is proposed to counter the turbine blade problem. In this research, active materials had been proposed as the actuator for the contractile function. The integration of active material structure and passive structure caused significant consequence on the kinematic and dynamic of the robot. This including the dimension variation, stress distribution as well as contraction force which affects the hydrodynamic efficiency of the propulsion. Several essential design considerations were highlighted and discussed.

Aerial fish feeding system

Automated fish feeding system has been developed to overcome feed waste and water pollution problems. However, typical existing automatic fish feeding system is relatively high cost in maintenance, high energy consumption and has limited pond access area. This paper proposes a novel automated fish feeding system that combines feed dispensing and distribution as one process. A motor driven natural fiber cable is utilized to deliver top hung feeder for feeding process. Such method gives free access around the pond and able to deliver the feeder at any form of fish farm layout. In addition, it has relatively lower structure maintenance cost. The reliability test result showed the feeder positioning accuracy in average was between −1.33mm backward and 1.83mm forward. The accuracy was influenced by the cable tension.

Development of Mould of Rheology Test Sample via CadMould 3D-F Simulation

This research was about the development of mould for rheology test sample via simulation. The development work concerned with stages of design, simulation, analysis, and fabrication of the mould to produce good quality samples. In the design stage, three mould concepts have been prepared via Solid Works software. The simulation of injection moulding was conducted by using CadMould 3D-F software. Then, in the analysis stage, the main factor that has been studied were the cavity system, runner system and the gating system. For each design, different type of systems were applied to compare different simulation result. Through the simulation software, it was rectified that the parameter such as the number of cavities, filling time, shear stress were the main factors to contribute good rheological properties of the sample. The final result shows that Design 2 was chosen as the suitable mould due to number of cavities and good results in the analysis, as compare to other mould design. Finally, Design 2 have been fabricated and undergo fitting test to see whether the dimension had been done correctly. Based on this research findings, it was proven that to develop a mould suitable for rheology sample, the mould design selection should be made based on the type of system in simulations.

Design and development of automatic sharia compliant wheelchair wheels cleaner

Sharia compliant wheelchair wheel cleaner was developed in order to assist the muslim Person with Disabilities (PWD) to pray in the mosque without leaving their wheelchair because of the filthy wheels. Though there are many wheelchair wheel cleaning system in the market, it is very rare to find sharia compliant cleaning system that applies sertu concept which is one of the cleaning and purification technique in Islamic practice. The sertu concept is based on 6:1 ratio that refers to the six times pipe water cleaning and one time soiled water cleaning. The development process consists of design stage, fabrication and system installation stage and followed by testing stage. During the design stage, the proposed prototype underwent design brainstorming, operation programming and structural simulation analysis. Once fabricated, the cleaner prototype underwent was tested. The results showed that the prototype can cater load up to 100kg with 1.31×10−6 mm shaft bending displacement. The water ejection timing var...

Feasibility Study of Arduino Microcontroller Usage for IPMC Actuator Control

This paper investigates the usage of Arduino microcontroller to control closed loop of IPMC actuator response designed for compact underwater application. We demonstrate control of single Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuator by PID controller using MATLAB/Simulink Arduino Input Output (ArduinoIO) support package. Experimental results show that the microcontroller able to differentiate response speed and stability of IPMC actuator with different thicknesses. Based on Arduino data acquisition results, thinner IPMC (t1) has more than 5 times respond speed than thicker IPMC (t2). However, IPMC t1 has lower steady-state stability (higher noise) compared to IPMC t2 due to IPMC actuator mechanism factors and current setup limitation for Arduino microcontroller. Therefore, added with further improvements in term of analog read sampling rate and analog write resolution, Arduino microcontroller can accurately control and analyse the IPMC actuator, thus manage to replace expensive and bulky current DAQ hardware.

Drag Analysis of Contractile Water Jet Locomoted Micro AUV in Laminar Fluid

Drag analysis is vital to measure the performance of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) as well as the AUV thruster. Most of the previous drag studies is regarding to the shape and swimming method that contribute to the AUV performance. However, few attention was given on drag which influence the development of thruster. Hence, this research was conducted to analyze the drag of the micro AUV in a laminar fluid flow in order to find the optimum thrust that must be gained by a contractile water jet thruster (CWJT). Besides, these studies also focus on the dynamic pressure and skin friction that forms the total drag which acted on the AUV surface. Drag was measured by using pull technique and simulation technique for AUV speed below 0.5ms-1. The results show that the recorded drag was between 9.0 x 10-4N and 1.8 x 10-1N. The trend line between the simulation data and experimental data has no significant difference and thus it shows that the simulation data were verified. Both results exhibits that the drag increase tremendously regarding to the AUV speed increment.