Development of dynamically artificial flowers driven by shape memory alloy and pulse width modulation

Abstract

Artificial flowers are mainly static objects. If we can make them movable with actuating mechanisms, sensors and controllers, this will make them more lively and entertaining. The aim of this paper is to develop artificial flower ornaments with dynamic, modular, programmable and green-energy characteristics. The dynamically artificial flower ornaments show the performances: bending of stems, blooming of petals, spreading of fragrance and flapping of butterflies. Besides, solar power to simulate photosynthesis (it is just an analogy to actual photosynthesis) will be used to energize the dynamically artificial flower ornaments. Instead of using conventional mechanisms and electromagnetic motor to actuate the flower ornaments, we use shape memory alloy (SMA) as actuators and pulse width modulation (PWM) as drive circuit to avoid complication, lager volume and noise generation of the components. Four types of the SMA actuators are made of SMA wire (Ti50%-Ni45%-Cu5%) with one way shape memory effect and 0.6mm in diameter. The performance of each SMA actuator is evaluated. By using PWM, the SMA actuators have high response time and low energy consumption in acting cycle.