2010 Volume 76 Issue 772 Pages 3689-3695
Electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) is a kind of functional fluid, which produces a jet flow (ECF jet) when subjected to high DC voltage. It is known that a strong ECF jet is generated under nonuniform electric field, for example, the field with a pair of needle and ring electrode. This study introduces the ECF jet to develop a novel robot finger. First, we propose a concept of the robot finger which mainly consists of an ECF jet generator, a bending actuator and an ECF tank. The robot finger is driven by ECF jet, and integrated with a pump and a tank. Next, we characterize the ECF jet generator and confirm the effect of the variation of electrode gap and number of electrode pair on its performance. Finally, we investigate the characteristics of the robot finger. The length, the diameter, and the mass of the robot finger are 25mm, 5mm, and 3.8g, respectively. The robot finger can move 27.8mm in x direction and 26.7mm in y direction at 3.1s when ECF jet generator is applied at 6.0kV.
Transactions of the Society of Mechanical Engineers
Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Series A
Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Series B
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Series C
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Series B
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Series A
