I-Corps: ESTAT Electroadhesive Clutch

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将减少机器人硬件所需的重量和功耗。一个特别有前途的领域是人机交互领域，包括假肢，触觉设备，外骨骼和其他可穿戴技术，旨在帮助残疾用户或增强健全用户的性能。目前的装置受到传统致动器和传动装置的重量、功耗和功率输出的严重限制。使用离合弹簧来提高这些设备的性能可以大大减轻它们的重量，从而带来更舒适和更有效的运动辅助。基于该公司电粘附离合器的产品还可以提高工业机器人手臂的能效和多功能性。大型工业机械臂消耗的大部分能量来自于支撑身体重量和移动机械臂。的惯性。使用电粘附性离合器和弹簧来提供可调节的重力抵消并收集和返回动能将显著降低能量成本。此外，电控变速器可以实现控制模式切换，以执行更广泛的任务，从而可能减少制造产品所需的时间。I-Corps项目将重点关注该公司新型电粘附离合器原型的商业潜力，该原型的重量比其他离合器技术轻10倍，耗电量低1000倍。传统的离合器使用电磁离合器或磁流变流体来操作，这两者都需要重型部件和大量电力来操作。该公司的电粘附离合器使用轻薄的材料，并采用完全不同的技术进行操作，使我们能够使用重量为15克的设备传输高达180 N的力，功耗为3.2 mW，并在320 V DC下激活。该公司的电粘附离合器的激活/停用时间为20 ms，与最好的传统离合器相当。我们还进行了疲劳测试，证明超过300万次加载循环。公司最近对设计参数对这些性能指标的影响进行了广泛的实验研究，现在对广泛应用的离合器的适当设计有了很好的理解。该公司的离合器有潜力提高现有产品的性能，使用离合器，并使新的设计，将是不可行的，当受到传统离合器的限制。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be reducing the required weight and power consumption of robotics hardware. A particularly promising field is in the domain of human-machine interaction, including prostheses, haptic devices, exoskeletons, and other wearable technologies designed to assist users with disabilities or augment the performance of able-bodied users. Current devices are severely limited by the weight, power consumption, and power output of conventional actuators and transmissions. Using clutched springs to improve the performance of these devices could dramatically reduce their weight, leading to more comfortable and effective motion assistance. Products based on the company's electroadhesive clutch could also offer improved energy efficiency and versatility in industrial robot arms. Much of the energy consumed by large industrial arms stems from supporting the body weight and moving the arm?s inertia. Using electroadhesive clutches and springs to provide adjustable gravity cancelling and to harvest and return kinetic energy would significantly reduce energy costs. Additionally, electrically controllable transmissions could enable control mode switching for performing a wider range of tasks, potentially reducing the amount of time required to manufacture products.This I-Corps project will focus on the commercial potential of the company's novel electroadhesive clutch prototype that weighs 10 times less and consumes 1000 times less power than other clutch technologies. Conventional clutches operate using electro-magnetic solenoids or magneto-rheological fluid, both of which require heavy components and significant electrical power to operate. The company's electroadhesive clutch uses thin, lightweight materials and operates with a fundamentally different technique, allowing us to transmit up to 180 N of force with a device that weighs 15 grams, consumes 3.2 mW of power, and activates at 320 V DC. The activation/deactivation times of the company's electroadhesive clutch are 20 ms, which is comparable with the best conventional clutches. We have also performed a fatigue test demonstrating more than 3 million loading cycles. The company recently conducted an extensive experimental study of the effects of design parameters on these performance metrics, and now has a strong understanding of the appropriate design of clutches for a broad range of applications. The company's clutch has the potential to improve the performance of existing products that use clutches and enable new designs that would be infeasible when subjected to the limits of traditional clutches.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.