SUMMARY

Motivated by two applications (artificial perception and nondestructive damage detection), this research develops an actuating method utilizing magnetic and electric fields as media to enable manipulation of relatively high-resolution magnetic or electric patterns with a relatively small number of electromagnets or electrodes based on the distributed parameter element method. Unlike traditional methods where discrete points are stimulated, the synthesized magnetic or electric fields are accurately controlled between adjacent electromagnets or electrodes. To formulate this design problem, the distributed parameter element method is proposed to model the magnetic and electric fields for design analysis of magnetic or electrical stimulation by the electromagnet or electrode array. The two or three-dimensional irregular shape physical fields have been formulated in state-space representation by applying the divergence theorem on each element to satisfy the conservation law and boundary conditions, which provides a basis for the subsequent stationary, time dependent, and harmonic analysis of the physical field. A method for transducing optical color images to magnetic or electric patterns by manipulating the motion of its maximum magnetic flux density, electric field, and center of the eddy-current is introduced. The distributed parameter element method and the magnetic and electrical field scanning method are numerically verified and experimentally demonstrated for the artificial perception and nondestructive damage detection applications.