SMA-based Gripper

Innosuisse project in collaboration with a Swiss industrial partner

Project description

The step towards machines without pneumatic is a strong signal for the automation consumer industry that the Laboratory of Integrated Actuators (LAI), along with a Swiss company, Mikron SA have taken to establish a clean, energy-saving assembly solution that meets the requirements of the production environment. Pneumatic actuators are currently the gold standard for part handling, but they have several disadvantages, including low energy efficiency, particle creation, and the necessity for complicated infrastructure.

This research addresses the replacement of pneumatic grippers with an innovative method of actuation based on shape memory alloy (SMA). The new sort of gripper takes advantage of the high work output per volume of smart materials. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are one promising type of smart material with a high work output. This gripper would be lightweight and compact, allowing it to be used as a pick-and-place gripper for clean-room applications. The research aims to investigate a novel technology that will take advantage of the properties of this smart material to create a highly responsive, dynamic, lightweight, and compact actuation system while it doesn’t utilize the conventional design. By using the conventional design of the actuation part such as wire or coil, it is possible to have either a higher stroke or higher force output. Therefore, this research project aims to design and investigate novel structures to create higher force output and higher stroke without adding any complexity to the system.

In addition to providing higher force and stroke, the fatigue life of the actuation part can be improved through this novel design. This innovative approach allows for the uniform distribution of load within the structure, as opposed to concentrating the load on microstructural defects. Consequently, we gain better and effective control over the mechanical behavior of the actuation part.

Nowadays, the limiting factor of SMA is the response time. The goal of the project is to overcome this limitation by studying new unconventional designs that will allow optimizing the thermoelastic and morphological response of the active element structure significantly boosting the actuator working frequency.


Fabrication and Characterization of the Kirigami-Inspired SMA-Powered Actuator

M. Ghorbani; S. Thomas; G. Lang; T. G. Martinez; Y. Perriard 

IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications. 2023-07-19. Vol. 59, num. 4, p. 3991-3999. DOI : 10.1109/TIA.2023.3265639.

High current power amplifier board design for SMA-based actuator fast heating

M. Abipour 

2023-06-09.

Instrumented gripper with tuneable operational range for micro/meso manipulation

D. Cisier 

2023-01-20.

Towards Development of a Novel Variable Stiffness Instrumented Gripper

B. Tiwari; M. Ghorbani; D. Cisier; Y. Perriard 

2023-01-01. 11th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA), Grimstad, NORWAY, NOV 01-03, 2023. p. 392-396. DOI : 10.1109/ICCMA59762.2023.10374678.

Improve the Time Response of Shape Memory NiTi Sheets Using Highly Conductive Elastomer Layers

M. Ghorbani; G. Lacroix; S. L. Ntella; T. G. Martinez; Y. Perriard 

2022-12-21. 2022 25th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS), Chiang Mai, Thailand, 29 November 2022 – 02 December 2022. DOI : 10.1109/ICEMS56177.2022.9982991.

Investigating the Convection Heat Transfer on SMA Actuators by Using a Highly Conducting Elastomer Layers

G. Lacroix 

2022-06-10.

Modelling and Fabrication of a Kirigami-Inspired Shape Memory Alloy Actuator

S. Thomas; M. Ghorbani; G. Lang; T. G. Martinez; Y. Perriard 

2021-12-17. 2021 24th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS), Gyeongju, Republic of Korea (hybrid), October 31 – November 3, 2021. p. 1533-1537. DOI : 10.23919/ICEMS52562.2021.9634337.