TY - GEN
T1 - Micro flexible robot hand using electro-conjugate fluid
AU - Ueno, S.
AU - Takemura, K.
AU - Yokota, S.
AU - Edamura, K.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - electro-conjugate fluid
KW - flexible actuator
KW - robot hand
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893935176&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84893935176&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2033778
DO - 10.1117/12.2033778
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84893935176
SN - 9780819498144
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems
T2 - Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems
Y2 - 9 December 2013 through 11 December 2013
ER -