CAREER: Highly Tunable Dry Adhesion through Constrained Buckling

该学院早期职业发展（Career）奖旨在研究软空心柱的可调干附着力。空心柱的独特之处在于它们在压力下屈曲时表现出超过1000倍的粘附变化。可调干附着力有许多应用，包括拾取和放置制造和触觉。然而，目前的方法可调干附着力仍然遭受有限的附着力变化。许多还需要高功耗和长激活时间。本研究将介绍利用软空心柱结构实现高可调干粘接的新方法。本研究将考察几何形状、材料刚度和屈曲对这些软空心结构的基本粘附力学的影响。这个项目的结果将推动软夹具的发展，用于操作小的、弯曲的和薄的部件，这些部件很难用目前的方法操作。所获得的新的力学知识也将有利于其他机器人机构的设计，如触觉。该项目还有一系列综合教育和推广计划，以扩大其影响，包括课程开发、本科生研究机会、在当地STEM博物馆举办的软机器人夏令营，以及与行业合作伙伴的互动。本CAREER项目的研究目标是通过柔性操作应用的约束屈曲，揭示软空心柱高度可调干附的基本力学。具体而言，该项目将研究(1)圆柱形软空心柱在低压下的约束屈曲以及几何参数和材料参数对其粘附力学的影响；(2)截面形状对软空心柱可调附着力的影响；(3)采用刚度可调的智能材料对软空心柱附着力可调的影响；(4)双稳底面对软空心柱可调附着力的影响。实验和有限元模拟都将用于解决这些基本的力学问题。该项目的成功将产生新的力学知识，推动柔性操作和其他机器人机构的可调干粘附领域的发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award aims to investigate tunable dry adhesion of soft hollow pillars. Hollow pillars are unique in that they exhibit adhesion changes over 1000 times when buckling under pressure. Tunable dry adhesion has many applications including pick-and-place manufacturing and haptics. However, current approaches to tunable dry adhesion still suffer from limited adhesion changes. Many also require high power consumption and long activation time. This research will introduce a new approach to highly tunable dry adhesion using soft hollow pillar structures. The study will examine the effects of geometry, material stiffness, and buckling on the fundamental adhesion mechanics of these soft hollow structures. The results from this project will advance the development of soft grippers for manipulation of small, curved, and thin parts that are difficult to manipulate using current approaches. The new mechanics knowledge gained will also benefit the design of other robotic mechanisms, such as haptics. This project also has a set of integrated education and outreach programs to broaden its impacts including course development, undergraduate research opportunities, soft robotics summer camps at a local STEM museum, and interactions with industry partners.The research objective of this CAREER project is to unravel fundamental mechanics of highly tunable dry adhesion of soft hollow pillars through constrained buckling for compliant manipulation applications. Specifically, the project will investigate (1) constrained buckling of cylindrical soft hollow pillars under low pressure and how the geometric and material parameters impact its adhesion mechanics; (2) the impact of cross section shape on tunable adhesion of soft hollow pillars; (3) the impact of using smart materials with tunable stiffness on tunable adhesion of soft hollow pillars; and (4) the impact of bistable bottom surface on tunable adhesion of soft hollow pillars. Both experiments and finite element simulations will be used to address these fundamental mechanics problems. The success of this project will generate new mechanics knowledge that advances the field of tunable dry adhesion for compliant manipulation and other robotic mechanisms.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.