Pneumatic micro-hand actuator for future space manipulation and robotics

Micro and nano technology has demonstrated the capability of creating miniaturized systems leading to significantly reduced mass, volume or power requirements, and therefore reduced cost but more advanced performances. Such micro systems are critical in the development of future space systems such as picosatellites, planetary probes, on-board instruments or nanorovers and swarm micro robotics. A pneumatically driven micro device has been proposed for manipulating and assembling space components or building-up a larger scale system based on individually launched micro robots. The device is a four fingered microhand actuator made of silicon rubber to grasp micro objects utilizing air pressure inside of its internal cavities. The grasp force and tip displacement of the fingers has been simulated using FEM. A prototype has been fabricated to validate its performance and the three-dimensional motion control using piezoelectric sensors to monitor the deflection in the fingers of the device.