Kevin Turner, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics & Materials Science and Engineering in Penn Engineering, Aoyi Luo, PhD, former postdoctoral associate, and Sumukh Pande, PhD, graduate research assistant, invented a dry adhesion-based shape memory polymer (SMP) gripper with high-load capacity and a high adhesion switching ratio.
Currently, there are limitations to the kinds of objects robotic arms or grippers can pick up. The researchers addressed this problem by developing a SMP-based adhesive gripper with variable stiffness to pick and place 3D objects.
When the SMP is in a soft state, it allows the gripper to make good contact with the object, even if it has an irregular shape or surface. The SMP can then switch to a stiff state, which increases the adhesive load capacity of the gripper and allows it to hold the object securely. Learn more here.