Research on Multi-fingered Flexible Micro Hand driven by Electro-conjugate Fluid Jet

本研究旨在发展一种适用于搬运微小柔软物体的多指柔性微机械手。我们介绍了一种电共轭流体（ECF），它产生一个强大的射流时，受到高直流电压，驱动一个灵活的微手指没有机械运动部件。通过布置多个微指，可以很容易地构造出多指柔性微机械手。该机械手主要由直径为1 mm的弧形硅橡胶管和内部带有针环电极对的ECF射流发生器组成。通过向电极对施加DC电压，产生ECF射流，导致硅橡胶管的内部压力增加。然后，管从曲线形状变形为直线形状。实验结果表明，在管端位移1毫米。通过该开发，我们获得了开发微型硅橡胶管等的技术诀窍。接下来，我们开发了使用电共轭流体的柔性微型手指。该手指由一根直径为4 m的硅橡胶管和一个ECF射流发生器组成，硅橡胶管沿其轴线有三个中心角为沿着120°的扇形室，ECF射流发生器内部有三个针-环电极对。通过选择性地向电极对施加DC电压，一个/两个室被加压，导致手指弯曲。手指尖端产生的最大位移和锻造分别为7.2 mm和0.9 mN。

This study aims to develop a novel multi-fingered flexible micro hand suitable for handling a miniature soft object. We introduce an electro-conjugate fluid (ECF), which generates a powerful jet flow when subjected to high DC voltage, to drive a flexible micro finger with no mechanically moving part. Arranging several micro fingers, we can easily construct a multi-fingered flexible micro hand.First, we developed an ECF micro manipulator. This manipulator mainly consists of a curved silicone rubber tube with diameter of 1 mm, and an ECF jet generator which has a needle-ring electrode pair inside. By applying a DC voltage to the electrode pair, an ECF jet is generated resulting in increasing the inner pressure of the silicone rubber tube. Then, the tube deforms from a curve shape to straight. The experimental result shows 1 mm displacement at the tube tip. We obtained know-how for developing a miniature silicone rubber tube etc. from this development.Next, we developed a flexible micro finger using electro-conjugate fluid. This finger consists of a 4 m diameter silicone rubber tube, which has three fan-lie rooms with center angle of 120° along its axis, and an ECF jet generator having three needle-ring electrode pairs inside. By selectively applying a DC voltage to electrode pairs, one/two rooms are pressurized resulting in making the finger bend. The maximum displacement and forge generated at the tip of finger are 7.2 mm and 0.9 mN, respectively.