Modelling a novel design of soft grippers actuated by smart hydrogel
J.P. Schoenmakers (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Jovana Jovanova – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Qianyi Chen – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
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Abstract
mart materials are already often used as actuator or sensors, as well in soft grippers as other fields. However, the application of thermoresponsive smart materials as actuator is still a potential field. As electroactive polymers and shape memory alloys are commonly used thermoresponsive smart materials for actuators in soft grippers, a novel design will contribute to this area by adding a new potential field: soft grippers actuated by thermoresponsive hydrogel particles. A structure, filled with thermoresponsive hydrogel particles which will swell after decreasing the temperature, will act as a gripper. After considering the relevant
parameters of soft grippers for this research, multiple demo structures are manufactured and compared with simulations. Additionally, the effect of these parameters on the bending performance is determined with
a Design of Experiments. At last, a potential configuration of a multi segmented adaptive soft grippers is presented.