Electroadhesion Gripper

A gripper that “sticks” to objects using electrostatic attraction from high voltage across electrodes in a flexible pad.

An electroadhesion gripper works on the principle of electroadhesion: interleaved electrodes are embedded beneath a soft gripper surface, and applying a high voltage induces an opposite charge on the object's surface, creating an electrostatic attraction between the two that holds the object against the pad and lifts it; the attraction disappears as soon as the power is cut. It needs neither a clamping motion nor a vacuum, making it friendly to cloth, paper, film, fragile items, or irregularly shaped objects, and it uses very little power. Its limitation is that the attraction force varies a lot with material, humidity, and surface condition, and it can't hold much weight, so it's often combined with mechanical fingers — the fingers handle enveloping the object, while electroadhesion adds friction and conformal contact.

ExamplePicking up a piece of cloth or paper lying flat on a table is hard for an ordinary two-finger gripper to slide under, but an electroadhesion pad can just be pressed onto it and powered up to lift it.

Also called

Electrostatic Adhesion Gripper

Related

Gripper · Soft Gripper · Vacuum Suction Cup · Deformable Object Manipulation · End Effector

Sources

Electroadhesion - Wikipedia