MSU Technologies

Smart Soft Actuators and Grippers Enabled by Self Powered Tribo-Skins

VALUE PROPOSITION

End effectors or grippers are an essential tool integrated with robotic arms for achieving grasping and manipulating functions in a variety of tasks, ranging from picking up and holding objects, to sorting, to locomotion and many other applications. Inspired by human hands, most traditional robotic grippers are made of assembled flexible joints and rigid links to obtain multiple degrees of freedom. To actuate for complex gestures or operations the grips are driver by cables like tendons. With traditional rigid grippers there are a lot of challenges in flexibility and dexterity as well as gripping and manipulating soft or fragile objects. With this technology the soft actuator is driven by a miniature DC motor and is designed to have multiple segments of elastomer body split into triangular cuts to facilitate bending and actuation and conformal contact with objects allowing for increased sensitivity.

DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY

In this invention, is a smart soft finger-like actuator with fast response, accurate control, self-powered pressure and bending sensing capability is developed by combing the cable-driven actuation with soft triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Two types of TENGs are integrated with the soft actuator: a single electrode-mode TENG to measure the contact pressure, and an inner contact-separation-mode TENG to detect the bending. With micro-pyramid structures, the tribo-skin patches possess high sensitivity and good compatibility with the actuator and can actively detect proximity, contact, and pressure via self-generated electricity.

BENEFITS