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

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.