PFI-RP: Robotic Manipulation of Small, Delicate, and Curved Objects Using Tunable Dry Adhesion

Award ID: 2141089

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is to advance a technology that enables the robotic manipulation of small, delicate, and curved objects. Handling such objects, which are frequently encountered in precision devices and advanced electronics, in automatic assembly and packaging processes is challenging with technologies that exist today. This PFI-RP project will develop miniaturized adhesion-based grippers to address this pain point. The proposed project aims to develop miniaturized soft grippers with dynamically tunable adhesion for robotic manipulation of small, delicate, and curved objects. These soft grippers contain an active material with a stiffness that can be changed through an electrical signal to match the application. The grippers are designed such that the stiffness change leads to a change in adhesion at the contact surface. This adhesion tunability will be exploited for controllably gripping small and delicate objects. Through mechanics and thermal modeling, the soft grippers will be designed with appropriate geometry and dimensions for optimal performance on multiple metrics including response time, activation voltage, object size and weight. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Mara E. Schindelholz