Theoretical and experimental analyses of the dynamic electroadhesion force

Electroadhesion (EA) is a polarization-induced dynamic electrostatic attraction phenomenon, including the saturation and attenuation delays of the EA force, and its repeatability under repeated application. Due to the complex polarization and dielectric relaxation mechanisms, it is pretty challenging to establish a theoretical EA model to clearly reveal the underlying polarization behind the dynamic EA force. In this paper, a theoretical model is proposed to describe the dynamic EA effect and analyze the dynamic EA characteristics by establishing the relationship between the EA force and polarization and introducing the Debye model into the polarization function. This model suggests that interfacial polarization is responsible for the dynamic behavior of EA force, which results in the saturation and attenuation delays, as well as the poor repeatability of EA force. Theoretical analysis also indicates that the application of an AC voltage can reduce the saturation and attenuation delays and enhance force repeatability by alleviating this effect, and that increasing the voltage frequency will reduce the EA force and eventually stabilize the EA force at hundreds of Hertz. Experiments show that our theoretical model can well explain the saturation and attenuation delay time scales, as well as the dependence of EA force on charging/discharging cycle and frequency. This work not only provides a theoretical tool for analyzing the dynamic EA effect but also offers potential strategies to improve EA performance.