A High-Speed Micro Crawling Robot with Cancelation of Residual Electroadhesion Using Reversal Polarity Method

Abstract

A new micro fast-moving soft robot is investigated, which integrates a Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) actuator for actuation and two Electro Adhesive (EA) pads for adhesion. An approach employing reverse-polarity voltage modulation is introduced to counteract the residual adhesion caused by deactivation of the EA pads. Several noteworthy features of this robot are elucidated: (a) low power consumption of 414 μW/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , facilitated by a custom-designed, energy-efficient high-voltage control circuitry, (b) rapid response due to the reversal polarity voltage discharge strategy, significantly enhancing the operational frequency of the robotic system, (c) significant movement speed, supported by empirical evidence indicating a maximum velocity of 177.52 mm/s, and (d) a remarkable payload capacity of 6.526 g, equivalent to 7.54 times its own mass of 0.866 g.