Self-Sensing Electroadhesive Polymer Gripper with Magnetically Controllable Surface Geometry

Inhalt:
Compared to conventional end effectors, electro-adhesive grippers enable the handling of sensitive, soft or air-permeable materials. The prehension force is based on a strong electric field generated by electrodes resulting in a polarisation of the dielectric and the generation of mirror charges in the workpiece. When the electrode supply voltage is deactivated, the electric field drops, but an electrostatic field remains due to remanent polarisation of the dielectric. The residual charge on the gripper surface reduces only slowly and in combination with other influencing factors can prevent the workpieces from being ejected temporarily or completely. In this work a solution to this problem is presented by means of gripper surface deforming caused by the application of a magnetic field to a magneto-active polymer (MAP) actuator. The increased distance between the workpiece and the dielectric enables precise and controlled ejection. In addition to compliance and deformability, the employment of soft smart materials enables the integration of self-sensing mechanisms for the measurement of surface deformation. The embedding of electrically conductive flexible electrodes within the soft silicone dielectric support such movements and serves as the necessary electrodes for electroadhesion. Since the implementation of the end effector is based entirely on soft materials, the self-sensing magnetically controllable electroadhesive gripper (SMEG) can be produced in a shape deposition manufacturing (SDM) process and is highly applicable to the field of soft robotics.