High performance electroadhesive clutches with multilayered architecture

Electroadhesive (EA) clutches are promising for advanced motion and force
control in robotics, haptics, and rehabilitation, owing to their
compactness and light weight. However, their practical use is limited by
the inability to deliver high forces at low voltages, primarily due to a
lack of understanding of their mechanics. We introduce a novel deformable
body fracture mechanics approach and high-resolution strain field imaging
to reveal that non-uniform stress distributions cause EA clutches to fail
through delamination and crack propagation. Using this insight, we
developed EA clutches sustaining 22 N over 1 cm² at 100 V, achieving the
highest stress per voltage among similar clutches. This was achieved by
incorporating a soft interlayer and peeling stopper for uniform stress
distribution and mitigating the failure modes. These EA clutches were
integrated into a lightweight ring-based wearable system for finger
rehabilitation and haptics. Our findings lay the groundwork for designing
low-voltage, high-performance EA clutches for next-generation motion and
force control applications.