Abstract
This study proposes a magnetorheological elastomer actuated multi-stable gripper reinforced stiffness with twisted and coiled polymer. The multi-stable gripper can conform objects with different sizes by means of its stable and adaptive characteristics. The multi-stable gripper is composed of a multi-stable laminated composite shell as the grab unit for supporting, a twisted and coiled polymer as the deformation element for variable stiffness and a magnetorheological elastomer as the smart material for actuation. The magnetorheological elastomer was activated by external magnetic field inducing the gripper change from the first stable state to the second or the third stable state to complete the gripping action. The driving force of the multi-stable laminated composite shell was discussed by the experimental and numerical methods, then the width of deformation and transition element was designed to reduce the driving force. Furthermore, the stiffness of the multi-stable gripper is analysed with respect to the compression, extraction, and gripping performance of the gripper through experiments, and then, the gripping performance was compared with current soft grippers. The experimental results show that the multi-stable gripper exhibits sufficient compliance and adaptability. That is, the multi-stable gripper has a faster response time and larger grasping weight compared with soft grippers.
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