A Concept Selection Method for Designing Climbing Robots

Petzing

et al. 2017

An experimental investigation into the relationship between the interfacial electroadhesive force and applied voltage up to 20 kV has been presented. Normal electroadhesive forces have been obtained between a double-electrode electroadhesive pad and three optically flat and different substrate materials: glass, acrylic, and polycarbonate. The results have shown that not all substrate materials are good for the generation of electroadhesive forces. Only 15.7 Pa has been obtained between the pad and the polycarbonate substrate under 20 kV, whereas 46.3 Pa and 123.4 Pa have been obtained on the acrylic and glass substrate, respectively. Based on the experimental data, empirical models, with an adjusted R-square value above 0.995 in all cases, have been obtained for the three substrates. However, it has not been possible to develop a general empirical model which is suitable for all substrates. This further indicates the need for a large quantity of experimental data to obtain robust empirical models for different substrate materials in order to reliably use electroadhesive technologies for material handling applications.

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of relationship between interfacial electroadhesive force and applied voltage for different substrate materials

Petzing

et al. 2017

“…This is due to certain advantages that electroadhesion has over other adhesion mechanisms such as magnetic, pneumatic, and bio-inspired adhesion methods. 7 These advantages include enhanced adaptability, gentle/flexible handling, reduced complexity, and ultra-low energy consumption. 8 Electroadhesion is an electrically controllable and dynamic 8 electrostatic attraction between an electroadhesive pad and a substrate, with 33 variables influencing the interfacial electroadhesive force.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The electroadhesive force is generated by high-electric-field induced polarization or electrostatic induction depending on the material type. 7 Environmental conditions can cause material properties (such as dielectric strength, permittivity, and resistivity) to change and therefore also the polarization properties. Among the environmental factors, Monkman 17 concluded that only temperature and humidity have a noticeable effect on the electroadhesive force.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of a flexible and environmentally stable electroadhesive device

Singh

et al. 2017

Electroadhesion is a promising adhesion mechanism for robotics and material handling applications due to several distinctive advantages it has over existing technologies. These advantages include enhanced adaptability, gentle/flexible handling, reduced complexity, and ultra-low energy consumption. Unstable electroadhesive forces, however, can arise in ambient environments. Electroadhesive devices that can produce stable forces in changing environments are thus desirable. In this study, a flexible and environmentally stable electroadhesive device was designed and manufactured by conformally coating a layer of barium titanate dielectric on a chemically etched thin copper laminate. The results, obtained from an advanced electroadhesive “normal force” testing platform, show that only a relative difference of 5.94% in the normal force direction was observed. This was achieved when the relative humidity changed from 25% to 53%, temperature from 13.7 °C to 32.8 °C, and atmospheric pressure from 999 hPa to 1016.9 hPa. This environmentally stable electroadhesive device may promote the application of the electroadhesion technology.

“…9 This is due to certain advantages that electroadhesion has over other adhesion mechanisms such as pneumatic, magnetic, and bio-inspired methods. 10 These advantages include enhanced adaptability, gentle/flexible handling, reduced complexity, and ultra-low energy consumption. Electroadhesion, initiated by high-electric-field induced polarization or electrostatic induction, is a dynamic, electrically controllable, and interfacial electrostatic attraction between an electroadhesive actuator and a substrate.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetrical electroadhesives independent of different interfacial surface conditions

Hovell

et al. 2017

Current electroadhesive actuators cannot produce stable electroadhesive forces on the same substrate with different interfacial surface interactions. It is, therefore, desirable to develop electroadhesive actuators that can generate stable adhesive forces on different surface conditions. A symmetrical electroadhesive pad that is independent of different interfacial scratch directions is developed and presented. A relative difference of only 6.4% in the normal force direction was observed when the electroadhesive was facing an aluminium plate with surface scratch directions of 0°, 45°, 90°, and 135°. This step-change improvement may significantly promote the application of electroadhesion technology. In addition, this manifests that significant performance improvements could be achieved via further investigations into electroadhesive designs.