Compact planar low-voltage electroadhesion pads for reversible tissue and hydrogel adhesion

Abstract

Recent breakthroughs in low-voltage electroadhesion (EA) have demonstrated adhesion of hydrogels and biological tissues to metals at less than 10 V, offering significant promise for biomedical and soft robotic applications. However, the current arrangements rely on a parallel electrode configuration that sandwiches the adhesion target (e.g., tissue or hydrogel) between two electrodes, introducing two main limitations. Reversing voltage polarity causes re-adhesion to the opposite electrode, and bilateral electrode access is often impractical in confined settings such as robotic surgery or internal device anchoring. Addressing these challenges, this work presents a novel, compact, planar EA pad that achieves reversible adhesion with access to just a single surface. The effect of interfacial length, inter-electrode gap, and electrode width ratio on EA forces is investigated experimentally, and finite element electrostatic simulations are used to investigate the effect of these parameters on electric field strength and distribution. The optimized design achieves a 279% difference in adhesion force between forward and reverse polarity. Single-contact lifting and release of kidney tissue is demonstrated using the normal EA forces and a proof-of-concept EA tissue grasper that minimizes the required pinch force for grasping is realized.

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ORCID for Hareesh Godaba: orcid.org/0000-0001-6600-8513

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