Design and characterization of high-performance contactless gripper using spiral air flows

We present a MEMS-based contactless gripper with arrayed spiral air flows, aimed at the mitigation of the flow-induced vibration of the levitated object. For non-contact levitation as applied to the robot end-effector, the air flow-based handling system has attracted increasing attention due to the simplicity of the structure and its control. Our design is based on the concept of distributed forcing by arrayed spiral-flow chambers. In each chamber, a spiral flow is generated, which effectively induces the attraction force by negative pressure. Our device has extremely thin structure, compatible with MEMS-based fabrication. In the present study, we fabricate proof-of-concept devices, and examine the basic characteristics. We demonstrate the promising performance of the present gripper through force-measurement experiments. Design considerations by CFD analysis and a simplified analytical model of the attraction force are also presented. The present results support the effectiveness of our strategy, and it is suggested that the arrayed structure with spiral-flow chambers and suction hole is much effective for obtaining desired attraction force while enhancing the holding stability.