A gecko-inspired adhesive robotic end effector for critical-contact manipulation  

作　　者：Zhongyi CHU Jie DENG Lin SU Jing CUI Fuchun SUN 

机构地区：[1]School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering,Beihang University,Beijing 100191,China [2]School of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics,Beijing University of Technology,Beijing 100124,China [3]Department of Computer Science and Technology,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China

出　　处：《Science China(Information Sciences)》2022年第8期116-129,共14页中国科学（信息科学）（英文版）

基　　金：supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51975021, U1913206, 61773028)。

摘　　要：It is an emerging challenge for robots to achieve non-destructive pick-and-place manipulation for delicate objects under low normal preload, i.e., critical-contact manipulation. The prominent on-off controllable property of the gecko-inspired microwedge adhesive makes critical-contact manipulation possible for robotic end effectors. However, it is difficult for end effectors to actuate the micron-scale microwedge adhesive and detect the adhesion state. In this paper, a gecko-inspired adhesive robotic end effector for critical-contact manipulation is proposed, which consists of a half-scissor variable-scale actuator, a 3-axis high-sensitivity isotropic flexible capacitive tactile sensor, and the microwedge adhesive. The half-scissor variable-scale actuator is designed to provide pure large shear loading for the microwedge adhesive at micronscale displacement by merely controlling the normal macro-scale displacement of the actuator. Besides, the3-axis high-sensitivity isotropic flexible capacitive tactile sensor is designed for accurate detection of multiaxis contact forces and the adhesion state between the adhesive and objects to ensure the success of the critical-contact manipulation. The sensor can sense the shear and normal forces by detecting variations of the overlap and distance between electrodes, while the design of the finger-like electrodes improves the sensitivity. In addition, a set of experiments on manipulating objects are implemented and the results show that the proposed robotic end effector can provide pure large shear loading for the microwedge adhesive at micron-scale displacement and can detect the adhesion state between the microwedge adhesive and objects accurately to stably grasp delicate objects in critical-contact condition.

关 键 词：critical-contact manipulation gecko-inspired microwedge adhesive robotic end effector half-scissor variable-scale actuator tactile sensor 

分 类 号：TP242[自动化与计算机技术—检测技术与自动化装置]