CONTACT: Adrien Hanouar Renaudo, Centre for Entreprneurship and Innovation adrien.renaudo@ut.ee +372 737 6546
Soft samples, e.g. of biological origin, are best manipulated with compliant probes with a matched mechanical response. Ionic and Capacitive Laminates (ICLs) are excellent candidates for soft shape-morphing manipulators.
Case study: Manipulation of human hair in-situ under SEM
- Tip deflection >0.5 mm at 1.6 mm free length
- Chamber pressure ~50 Pa
- No interference with electron beam due to low voltage and no magnetic components
- No evaporation of ionic liquid electrolyte was observed
- Possible configurations:
- ICL as a stand-alone manipulator
- ICL as an end-effector for other manipulators
Case study: soft gripper
- Manipulators for different environments (air, vacuum, liquid)
- Grippers for small and fragile objects
- Safer micro-medical and -surgical devices
- ICLs have bipolar symmetric continuous actuation
- Actuation of ICLs is proportional to the reversibly stored electric charge and it returns to its initial state by re-extracting the charge
- ICL stress-strain behavior can be tuned by material synthesis and by the actuator’s geometry
- The operating voltage of ICLs is very low, not exceeding 2.7 V, making it safe to operate and straightforward to drive using microcontrollers
- ICL can be fabricated completely metal-free, optional (e.g., metallic) current collectors increase the performance
- Easy to apply different sensors and probes to the manipulator tip
Case study: Manipulation and electrical probing of soft objects
Probing of soft gels and liquid droplets.