robotic hands with a gentle contact

have you ever ever rubbed a balloon in your hair to make it stick with the wall? This electrostatic stickiness called electroadhesion may additionally alternate robotics all the time.

EPFL scientists have invented a new gentle gripper that makes use of electroadhesion: bendy electrode flaps that act like a thumb-index duo. it can choose up fragile items of arbitrary form and stiffness, like an egg, a water balloon or paper.

This light-weight gripper may additionally soon be handling food for the meals industry, capturing particles in outer area or integrated into prosthetic hands. The research, which turned into funded by NCCR Robotics, is featured in superior substances.

"this is the primary time that electroadhesion and smooth robotics had been blended together to comprehend items," says Jun Shintake, doctoral scholar at EPFL and primary author of the e-book.

whilst the voltage is grew to become on, the electrodes bend towards the item to be picked up, imitating muscle feature. the top of the electrodes act like fingertips that gently agree to the form of the object, gripping onto it with electrostatic forces within the equal way that the balloon sticks to the wall. these electrodes can deliver eighty times its own weight and no earlier expertise about the object's form is vital.

In comparison, different tender grippers are both pneumatically controlled or fail at selecting up fragile items with out telling the gripper beforehand approximately the object's shape. additionally they were not able capable of deal with flat or deformable objects.

"the newness of our soft gripper is the proper combination of two technologies: artificial muscle groups and electroadhesion," says PhD co-supervisor Dario Floreano of EPFL. "Our precise configuration of electrodes and silicone membranes is what lets in us to manipulate the bending of the flaps and the electrostatic grip," adds PhD co-manager Herbert Shea of EPFL.

the way it mimics muscle feature and grips onto objects

The electrode flaps consist of 5 layers: a pre-stretched elastomer layer sandwiched among two layers of electrodes, plus two outer layers of silicone of different thickness. whilst the voltage is off, the distinction in thickness of the outer layers makes the flaps curl outwards. when the voltage is on, the enchantment among the 2 layers of electrodes straightens out the membranes. This straightening of the membranes from a curled role mimics muscle flexion.

on the tips of the flaps, the electrodes of each layer are designed for most desirable electrostatic grip. these interdigitated electrodes, which look like  combs geared up collectively, create an electrostatic discipline that reasons electroadhesion.