Characteristics and comparison of commercial with new type of actuators

ISAS has made investigation and survey of new type of actuators applicable to be used in the field of home automation for an Austrian company.

We have defined some most promising type of actuators in the field of company’s interest and made a survey on their characteristics. Together with a company, we have defined most important criteria for the comparison of emerging actuators. These were:

1. Power/ power density (max)
2. Energy (or work) /energy density (or work density) (max)
3. Stroke /strain (max)
4. Force/force density, torque (max.)
5. Dimensions
6. Dynamic performance (bandwidth, time constant)
7. Max. operating temperature
8. Efficiency
9. Heat dissipation
10. Scaling trends
11. Power supply (voltage, current)
12. Intelligent control (electrical circuits and sensors)
13. Power supply(type and typical values)
14. Electrical equivalence (for instance resistance, capacitance etc.)
15. Security issues
16. Availability (now and expected in the long term)
17. Costs (now and in future, assumption in 5 years)
18. Technology with aspect on the existing problems (critical view)
19. Restrictions
20. Applications
21. Research trends (future trends)
22. Research institutions or companies working with this type of actuator

The result of the RAS project was a study of few types of actuators according to the listed criteria. The company showed interest to investigate further particular type of actuator applicable for specific applications.