Paper Title
Experiment of Self-Sensing and Stiffness Variation of Magnetorheological Gel For A Flexible Stiffness Controllable Device

Abstract
In this paper, the properties of self-sensing and stiffness variation of a smart material magnetorheological (MR) gel is analyzed as a feasibility study of designing a flexible stiffness controllable system such as a smart joint for a robot leg. An MR gel is a special material which is soft and flexible that can change its stiffness and resistance with external magnetic field. In this study, experiments are conducted to derive the relationship among the resistance, stiffness and magnetic field. From the experiment results, the resistance of the gel could be controlled from 180kΩ up to 630kΩ and the stiffness could be controlled by 135% with magnetic field under 250mT. Thus, it can be concluded that the MR gel has a high potential as a flexible stiffness controllable system with self-sensing function. Index Terms- Magnetorheological Gel, stiffness variable, self-sensing, stiffness control.