This thesis advances the field of electroadhesion applied to soft robotics, with focus on electroadhesion soft grippers. The main contribution of my work regards novel insights into the influence of mechanics on electroadhesion. In the first part of the Thesis, I explored how mechanics plays a critical role in the performance of current designs of electroadhesion soft grippers. In the second and last part of Thesis, I investigated an alternative approach for the realization of a novel electroadhesion soft robotic gripper embedding hydrogel into its structure. Despite extensive research on electroadhesion based devices has been conducted in the past, only recently the role of the mechanical features of the system has been discovered and outlined. This is particularly important for robotic devices such as electrostatic and electrohydraulic actuators, electrostatic clutches and electroadhesion grippers. In this Thesis, I focused mainly on grippers. First, I explored the relationship between mechanical and electrical parameters of the grasping system and how it influences the wrapping capabilities of an electroadhesion gripper. Despite some current designs involve the use of external actuators to ease the grasping of objects with complex shapes, passive wrapping around objects can be reached under certain conditions. In the latter case, the wrapping is based on the phenomenon of zipping, already exploited in soft electrostatic actuators. Our work allowed us to discover that the zipping of gripper’s fingers on a curved object is ruled by two voltage thresholds, depending on the characteristics of the system. We experimentally validated the theoretical model and observed that actual behavior is predicted by the model, even if further investigations are needed to clarify what happens under certain conditions. The outcomes of this investigation are the starting point for determining how even more complex shape influence the object wrapping and to design grippers able to reliably grasp even the most complicated objects. ...
Electroadhesion for Soft Robotics: advancements in Soft Gripper applications
2023-01-01
doi:10.60576/poliba/iris/mastrangelo-massimiliano_phd2023
Hochschulschrift
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
DDC: | 629 |
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