Investigation of electrostatic force for robotic lay-up of composite fabrics

Abstract This paper discusses the principles of electrostatic force and its application to handling large size fabric materials. The dynamic behaviour of the charging/discharging process of the gripping surface has been studied. A computerized high voltage power supply was used to monitor the charging current in response to both step and ramp changes in the charging voltage. Experimental results have been used to develop a prototype modular-cell electrostatic gripping device (EGD) for carbon fibre materials. The active area of the EGD is programmable so that a selective fabric piece can be picked up from the surrounding waste on a cutting table. The prototype EGD has been integrated with a robot, and repetitive tests have been performed to investigate the reliability of both fabric pick-up and release operations.