Grabit, a spinoff company of SRI International, has developed a robotic hand that is able to grab and move things using static electricity.

The effect that the robot arm does is similar to the one experienced when a balloon that has rubbed is able to attract people's hair to make the strands stand up.

Grabit demonstrated the robotic arm at the RoboBusiness robotics conference that was held last week in Boston.

The robotic arm utilizes powered electrodes that are able to sustain the electrostatic attraction between the arm and the object being carried. The robotic arm is also able to alternate the polarities that it uses, to be able to prevent the buildup of charges within the arm to keep dust from collecting on the arm.

The electrostatic attraction principle used by Grabit's new robotic arm is already being used in some manufacturing processes, such as holding microchip wafers in their proper place.

The principle works the best when used with smooth, clean and flat surfaces, because the strength of the attraction is dependent on how much is touching between two objects. Electrostatic attraction, for example, is not suitable for use with very thin semiconductor material, because these this sheets are most often curved in shape. It will also be difficult for electrostatic attraction to pick up objects with irregular shapes.

Grabit aims to minimize these limitations with its innovations on its gripper, which utilizes flexible materials. These materials are able to generate electrostatic attraction despite their flexibility and are able to conform to the surfaces of objects, while still being durable enough against the wear and tear of factory usage.

The flexible surfaces used by Grabit's robotic arm allows the grabber to lift more weight. The surfaces also allow for better and more even distribution of the gripping, electrostatic force, as compared to conventional grabber robots that utilize suction to pick up objects.

The improvement presented by Grabit with their robotic arm opens up new opportunities for grabbers in taking on new tasks within the manufacturing process, including jobs that would have the grabber handle delicate materials such as the aforementioned thin semiconductor material. However, it can also be used to pick up just about anything, including fabric, sheet metal, mobile phones, paper sheets and glass panels.

The Grabit electroadhesion gripper is also very energy efficient. For the same cost of the energy used up in operating a convetional vacuum gripper over a week, the Grabit robotic arm will be operating for 10 years.

Grabit, founded back in 2011, lists top companies such as Samsung and Nike as strategic investors.