OPTIMIZATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF ELECTROSTATIC ADHESIVES

Electrostatic adhesion provides an attachment mechanism for robotic grippers that is both controllable and e ective over a wide range of surfaces including conduc- tive, semi-conductive and insulating materials. The adhesives function by utilizing a set of high voltage electrodes that generate an electric eld. This electric eld polarizes the substrate material, thus generating an adhesion force. Optimizing the geometry of these conductive electrodes provides enhanced adhesion forces that in- creases attachment robustness. Previous researchers have attempted to increase the adhesion level of an electrostatic adhesive but no e ort has been made to optimize the geometry and con guration of the electrodes. This thesis presents a method to increase the adhesion level of electrostatic adhesives by optimizing the electrode geo- metric parameters: width of the electrodes, thickness of the electrodes, gap between the electrodes and number of electrodes. With the optimized electrode geometry, an improvement of up to 500 percent in shear stress is achieved compared to previously published values.M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, May 201