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表现。目前的设备受到传统执行器和变速器的重量、功耗和功率输出的严重限制。使用离合器弹簧来改善这些设备的性能可以大大减轻它们的重量，从而带来更舒适和有效的运动辅助。基于该公司电粘合离合器的产品还可以提高工业机器人手臂的能源效率和多功能性。大型工业机械臂消耗的大部分能量来自支撑身体重量和移动机械臂。年代惯性。使用电粘合离合器和弹簧来提供可调节的重力消除，并收集和返回动能，将大大降低能源成本。此外，电控传动装置可以实现控制模式切换，以执行更广泛的任务，从而有可能减少制造产品所需的时间。I-Corps项目将专注于该公司新型电粘合离合器原型的商业潜力，该原型重量比其他离合器技术轻10倍，功耗低1000倍。传统的离合器使用电磁螺线管或磁流变液操作，这两种方法都需要重型部件和大量的电力来操作。该公司的电粘合离合器采用薄而轻的材料，并采用一种完全不同的技术，使我们能够通过一个重量为15克的设备传输高达180牛顿的力，消耗3.2兆瓦的功率，并在320 V直流下启动。该公司的电胶离合器的激活/停用时间为20ms，与最好的传统离合器相当。我们还进行了超过300万次加载循环的疲劳测试。该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，现在对适用于广泛应用的离合器的适当设计有了深入的了解。该公司的离合器有潜力改善现有使用离合器的产品的性能，并实现在受到传统离合器限制时无法实现的新设计。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。

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.