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The Athena Robotics Institute in collaboration with the School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, developed the novel soft actuators "Mag-Nets". The actuator incorporates copper coils and neodymium permanent magnets embedded in a silicone body inspired by fast Pneu-Net actuators. The operation of the actuator relies on the electromagnetic repulsive forces exerted between a cylindrical magnet and a thick copper coil when current passes through the latter.

 

To demonstrate this actuator technology, two applications have been investigated: a soft two-fingered gripper and an untethered soft crawling robot. Comprehensive experiments on the fabricated soft fingers validated the developed dynamics model. Further experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency and reliability of the soft gripper.  Among other objects, the gripper successfully grasped and lifted a 93 g onion, a 115 g lemon and a 203 g wine glass. The latter task brought the gripper to its grasping limits (maximum current applied) due to the target’s high mass, low coefficient of friction and shape.

 

“Mag-nets” offer a more affordable and simpler option compared to current technologies, as they significantly reduce production and operation expenses while simplifying control. For example, the fabrication and control costs for a soft gripper based on Mag-Nets are €41.9, while for a conventional pneumatic gripper are €578, i.e. approximately 1380% higher.

 

Based on the conducted work, a technical paper entitled “Introducing Mag-Nets: Rapidly Bending Electromagnetic Actuators for Self-contained Soft Robots” was submitted in January 2024 to the international journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and was accepted for publication three months later.