Design and fabrication of miniaturized shape memory alloy gripper prototype

Grippers, currently used in Industry, are not suited for clean room application. Thus, a novel type of smart gripper is being designed using Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). In the development of this Smart Gripper, the modelling of the material is quite critical. The aim of this project would be to design a working test bench so as to characterize the material based on its transition temperatures and stress-strain behaviours. The student must find an appropriate test bench solution that would be adapted to model the SMA sheet. The test bench must be able to heat the SMA as well as measure the resulting displacement and force. This project will allow the student to learn the intricacies and the basics of prototyping as well as test their creativity and design acumen while building a test bench and proof of concept prototypes.