All 3D printed ready-to-use flexible electroadhesion pads

Electroadhesion is a promising adhesion mechanism widely employed in robotics with advantages including enhanced adaptability, gentle/flexible handling, reduced complexity, and ultralow energy consumption. Currently, all electroadhesion pads are manually fabricated, which limits their applications. In contrast, new, easy-to-implement, cost-effective, and entirely 3D printed flexible electroadhesion pads made of both nonconductive polylactide and graphene conductive polylactide are presented in this paper. Moreover, their statics model for geometric dimensions and flexibility is established via the pseudo rigid body model. Then, normal electroadhesion force measurements and electrostatic simulation of the flexible electroadhesive pads are conducted. Finally, a 3D printed curvature adjustable gripper based on flexible electroadhesive pads that can actively grasp flat, concave, and convex objects is presented. These FEPs are expected to widen the preparation technology and increase the use of electroadhesion in soft robots application.

Automated summary

This paper presents flexible electroadhesion pads that are 3D printed and have potential applications in the grippers of soft robots, indicating a wide range of possibilities.