Compact MR fluid clutch device for human-friendly actuator

In this paper, we describe a design method and experimental results of a newly developed MR Fluid clutch which has a multi-layered disks and micro-size (50 micro meters) gaps of MR Fluid. The micro-size gap works for the reduction of magnetic resistance, amount of power supply and size of the total system. Static torques of the device was predictable with conventional magnetostatic analyses. Additionally, dynamic test shows that its response time is about 20 milliseconds.