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  4. Clutchable Fabric Actuator for Energy-Efficient Wearable Robots
 
research article

Clutchable Fabric Actuator for Energy-Efficient Wearable Robots

Zhang, Huapeng  
•
Shea, Herbert  
2024
Advanced Functional Materials

Energy-efficient yet energy-dense soft actuators are essential for untethered wearable robots. This work reports a fabric-like actuator, combining shape memory alloy (SMA) springs and electrostatic clutches (ESClutches). The SMA springs provide high force density, with only 18 g of materials generating 40 N of force at actuation strains of over 35%, but requiring 78 W of power to hold that strain. The ESClutches cannot generate motion on their own, but can maintain the force and contraction generated by SMAs consuming only a few mW, thus allowing the SMAs to be turned off. By combining SMAs and ESClutches, a soft wearable fabric actuator is developed with force and stroke suited for an upper-limb soft exoskeleton, able to lock in any given position using negligible power. The design is scalable: the number and dimensions of the SMA springs and of the ESClutches can be chosen to meet size and actuator performance requirements. This work reports two wearable use cases, where the combined SMAs and ESClutches consume over 70% lower power than SMAs alone.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.1002/adfm.202415099
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85208942169

Author(s)
Zhang, Huapeng  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Shea, Herbert  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2024

Published in
Advanced Functional Materials
Subjects

electrostatic clutches

•

fabric actuators

•

shape memory alloy actuators

•

soft robotics

•

wearable robotics

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMTS  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

SERI

22.00180

European Commission

101072920‐SOFTWEAR,HORIZON‐MSCA‐2021

Available on Infoscience
January 25, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/244094
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