Development and Analysis of New Ceramic Materials for Electroadhesion

Fabricating a gripper for industrial robot arms with the capability of handling a variety of objects with different mechanical and material properties is becoming more demanding and electroadhesion(EA)is one potential solution that has proved to be efficient in handling objects with dimensions ranging between micrometres to centimetres. This study has aimed to develop methods of fabricating EA devices, mostly focusing on fabricating new electroceramic-UV polymer composites to improve the electrical properties of dielectric layers within EA devices and thereby enhancing EA forces between the gripper and the substrate (an object being handled). Results show that using electroceramic materials can improve EA forces obtained by EA devices coated with composites made from UV-cured polymers and electroceramic particles as a result of increasing the relative permittivity of the coating layer. The UV-curable coating was chosen as it is a fast, room-temperature coating technology that enables avoidance of oxidation of the electrodes of EA devices during the coating process. Numerical simulations were used to find optimal designsforEA devices. In this study, ANSYS MAXWELL was used for simulations which have some advantages over similar software that have previously been used for this purpose, such as using an automotive adapting meshing technique and the capability of considering convergence criteria in simulations. Numerical simulations were carried out to find optimal shapes of electrodes and experimental results were consistent with the modelling results. Analytical solutions and their limitations for electroadhesion problems were developed. It was also concluded that there is no clear, simple relationship between EA force and the total capacitance of the system. The application of a high voltage dielectric oil as a dielectric layer was tested and showed to be one solution to tackle instability in the performance of EA devices.