Micro flexible robot hand using electro-conjugate fluid

S. Ueno; K. Takemura; S. Yokota; K. Edamura

doi:10.1117/12.2033778

7 December 2013 Micro flexible robot hand using electro-conjugate fluid

S. Ueno, K. Takemura, S. Yokota, K. Edamura

Proceedings Volume 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems; 89234U (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033778
Event: SPIE Micro+Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications, 2013, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

An electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) is a kind of functional fluid, which produces a flow (ECF flow) when subjected to high DC voltage. Since it only requires a tiny electrode pair in micrometer size in order to generate the ECF flow, the ECF is a promising micro fluid pressure source. This study proposes a novel micro robot hand using the ECF. The robot hand is mainly composed of five flexible fingers and an ECF flow generator. The flexible finger is made of silicone rubber having several chambers in series along its axis. When the chambers are depressurized, the chambers deflate resulting in making the actuator bend. On the other hand, the ECF flow generator has a needle-ring electrode pair inside. When putting the ECF flow generator into the ECF and applying voltage of 6.0 kV to the electrode pair, we can obtain the pressure of 33.1 kPa. Using the components mentioned above, we developed the ECF robot hand. The height, the width and the mass of the robot hand are 45 mm, 40 mm and 5.2 g, respectively. Since the actuator is flexible, the robot hand can grasp various objects with various shapes without complex controller.

Citation Download Citation

S. Ueno, K. Takemura, S. Yokota, and K. Edamura "Micro flexible robot hand using electro-conjugate fluid", Proc. SPIE 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 89234U (7 December 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033778

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