Overview

As a Moore Foundation MURF Fellow, I worked with Dr. Aaron Parness at NASA JPL to design and fabricate an end effector that enables the omnidirectional gripping of smooth, curved surfaces in space. To design the gripper, I used a unidirectional, biomimetic, dry adhesive that imitates the characteristics of gecko skin. This material was developed by Dr. Parness as part of his PhD thesis.

 

Outcome

The mechanism that I designed was the first to grip curved, smooth surfaces. The next step is to further improve the design to increase the maximum force that the gripper can support. As a result of my work, I am a co-author of the paper that Dr. Parness published through IEEE. I also wrote a paper summarizing my work, which was published in the winter edition of the California Institute of Technology’s undergraduate research journal (CURJ). Finally, my research presentation was accepted at the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR), where I presented it in November of 2012.