SBIR Phase I: Rotary Electroadhesive Clutch for Lightweight and Energy-Efficient Actuators in Next-Generation Robots

SBIR 第一阶段：用于下一代机器人中的轻质高效执行器的旋转电粘附离合器

• 批准号: 1941405
• 负责人: Stuart Diller
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: ESTAT ACTUATION, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-15 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1941405&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Rotary; Electroadhesive; Clutch

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research project will be to enable new robotics systems with actuator hardware that is substantially lighter and less expensive than the current state-of-the-art. The high cost and limited performance of actuators are the greatest problems for engineers developing products for mobile applications, such as package delivery, security, disaster recovery, and wearable assistive devices, causing the market to bifurcate into low-cost robots with extremely limited functionality or versatile robots costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Clutches are an important way to reduce actuator requirements and costs, but conventional clutches are large, heavy, and power-hungry, ultimately negating potential improvements. In this project, we will develop an electro-adhesive clutch that is 10x lighter and uses 1000x less power than conventional clutches. This hardware innovation allows robotics engineers to use clutches with almost no mass or power consumption penalties. Removing this constraint will have a substantial impact on the commercial viability of robots that are both capable and affordable.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will consist of the design and characterization of a compact rotary electro-adhesive clutch. This work will build on recent accomplishments in creating and characterizing the linear electro-adhesive clutch design to move toward a rotary design integrating with existing robotic joints with minimal required hardware changes. The objectives of this work are to experimentally optimize the effect of materials and design choices on the performance of the rotary electro-adhesive clutch, and to establish performance metrics to evaluate the feasibility of commercial use. Design work will include simulation, mass optimization, and exploration of fabrication techniques. The experimental work will characterize the system in terms of maximum torque, power, and speed testing, response time and dissipation testing, and preliminary fatigue and wear experiments.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.

这个小型企业创新研究项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是启用具有执行器硬件的新机器人系统，该系统比当前的最新机器更轻且价格便宜。对于为移动应用开发产品的工程师来说，高成本和有限的性能是最大的问题，例如包装交付，安全性，灾难恢复和可穿戴辅助设备，导致市场分叉成具有极为有限的功能性的低成本机器人或具有极为有限的功能性机器人或数十万美元或数十万美元的机器人。离合器是降低执行器要求和成本的重要方法，但是传统的离合器大，沉重和渴望，最终否定了潜在的改进。在这个项目中，我们将开发一个轻便10倍的电粘性离合器，比传统离合器使用的功率少1000倍。这种硬件创新使机器人工程师可以使用几乎没有质量或功耗罚款的离合器。删除此限制将对既有能力又负担得起的机器人的商业生存能力产生重大影响。该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目将包括紧凑的旋转电粘性离合器的设计和表征。这项工作将基于创建和表征线性电粘性离合器设计的最新成就，以朝着与现有机器人关节集成的旋转设计，并具有最小的硬件更改。这项工作的目标是实验优化材料和设计选择对旋转电粘性离合器性能的影响，并建立性能指标来评估商业使用的可行性。设计工作将包括模拟，质量优化和制造技术的探索。实验工作将以最大的扭矩，功率和速度测试，响应时间和耗散测试以及初步疲劳和磨损实验来表征系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来支持的。