Abstract
Micro robot has a lot of attention in the field of rescue robot, inspection robot, medical robot because of its mobility in narrow spaces. In particular, many robotic researchers focus on a “biomimetic” micro robot, which can mimic natural creatures as it has functional locomotion systems. Electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) is a kind of functional fluid, which produces a jet flow when subjected to a high DC voltage. In this paper, a novel micro suction pad actuator having a flexible rubber film and a sucker driven by the ECF jet flow is proposed and developed. The actuator mechanism imitates an adhesive mechanism of octopus sucker. A prototype model with 25.5 mm long, 10 mm wide and 5 g weight was fabricated to confirm the adhesive mechanism. ECF flow generator for pressure source was also fabricated and integrated in the micro suction pad actuator. Displacement of the rubber film mounted on the top of micro suction pad actuator was measured by a laser sensor. The rubber film extended until 1.2 mm at the applied pressure of 2.45 kPa. Mathematical model was proposed to calculate the adhesive force of the micro suction pad actuator. The adhesive force of 0.79 N at the applied voltage of 8.0 kV was estimated by the mathematical model.
