Dielectric elastomer fingers for versatile grasping and nimble pinching

• Main Authors: Lau, Gih-Keong, Heng, Kim-Rui, Ahmed, Anansa S., Shrestha, Milan
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Dielectrics; Elastomeric polymers
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83353; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42565
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Boneless soft robotic fingers cannot apply concentrated forces to pinch a delicate object. This letter reports a three-dimensional design of dielectric elastomer fingers with higher flexural stiffness and close to 90° voltage-controllable bending for object gripping and pinching. It makes use of tension arch flexures to elevate a pre-stretched dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) into a roof shape and thus magnifies the tension-induced moment, 40 times higher than a flat DEA does, to bend a stiff base frame. Such fingers make normally close-grippers to lift a payload 8–9 times their weight. They also make normally open grippers that pinch a highly deformable raw egg yolk.