Modeling and Analysis on Braking Force of Interdigital Electrostatic Brakes

Abstract

This research proposes an electrostatic brake utilizing inter-digital electrodes and analyzes the braking force performance using FEM. The brake works as a jamming mechanism and is designed for controlling multi-DOF robot arms. In previous studies, various mechanisms have been applied to constrain the shape of the under-actuated robots. Among those mechanisms, electrostatic jamming, or brake, realizes simple and compact structures. Whereas the conventional electrostatic brakes utilize the planar parallel electrodes for electrode adhesion, this work proposes the utilization of inter-digital electrodes. The research investigates the parameters influencing the braking force of inter-digital electrostatic brakes and analyzes the braking performance using FEM. The performance is compared with that of the conventional planar parallel electrodes. The result shows that under certain geometry parameters and low friction indexes, the inter-digital electrostatic brakes overperforms planar electrode, in terms of total braking force.