Recent work on soft gripper using an artificial muscle technology was shown at Festival de robotique in EPFL

Floreano, Dario

Rosset, Samuel

Shea, Herbert

Shintake, Jun

Infoscience - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

              Artificial muscle for soft robots J. Shintake1,2, S. Rosset 1, D. Floreano2, H. R. Shea1 1Microsystems for Space Technologies Laboratory, EPFL, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.  http://lmts.epfl.ch 2Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.  http://lis.epfl.ch Festival de robotique 2013 Soft robots consist of soft or flexible materials unlike traditional methods which use rigid parts. The softness allows the robots to be (1) highly deformable, (2) creature-like, and (3) safe to other objects. Actuator Force sensor Soft robots? Artificial muscle? Soft gripper using artificial muscle (1) Deformable (2) Creature-like (3) Safe This project is funded by  Swiss National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics (Project No. 1.2 Sensorymotor tissues). We are using Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEA) which are often called artificial muscles because their properties are similar to natural muscles. DEA consists of a soft elastomer sandwiched by compliant electrodes. When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, an electrostatic force is generated, compressing the elastomer,  which leads to  decrease  of thickness and expansion of area. Material: • Silicone elastomer (transparent) • Carbon particle mixed silicone electrodes (black) • PCB frame A DEA device 10 mm Flexible frame Artificial muscle (DEA) 10 mm Feature: • Soft touching of objects • Fast movement • Thin (~0.1 mm) • Light weight  Possible use: • Handling fragile objects • Long term grasping without the need of electric power Working principle: When a stretched DEA is attached to a flexible frame, they form a bent shape.  As the DEA activates, it changes towards flat shape. 

Artificial muscles for soft robots

http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/186172/files/Jun_EPFL_robotics_festival.pdf

Artificial muscles for soft robots

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Infoscience - École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne