Mitsui Chemicals Succeeds in Reducing Component Weight by Around 89% in Ultralight Robot Project

With this in mind, Mitsui Chemicals has been looking into the use of robot components made from its Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene LUBMER™ as an alternative to metal. Hypothesizing that doing so would result in robots that were more energy efficient, lighter, quieter and maintenance-free, Mitsui Chemicals embarked on this joint development project with Waseda University and hide kasuga 1896. Now, project members have published an article^* detailing their finding that simply replacing the metal gear in a humanoid robot finger joint with a gear made from LUBMER™ reduced the weight of the component by around 89% and conserved energy, suggesting that LUBMER™ could also be applied for use in gears in the robotics field.

Going forward, the development partners intend to expand the scope of implementation to humanoid robot components required to bear a higher load and operate faster, including the elbows, shoulders and torso. They will examine the potential for creating ultralight robots by also verifying performance in accompanying metrics, including durability, practicality for use in oil-less drive systems and low noise effect.

* Details of published article:
Name of journal: IEEE Access
Title of article: Energy Efficiency Improvement of a Robotic Finger with Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Gear
Authors (affiliations): Takuya Otani ^*a, Hiroki Mineshita ^*a, Keigo Miyazawa ^*a, Yuri Nakazawa ^*a, Hideyuki Kasuga ^*b, Ryuki Kawai ^*c and Atsuo Takanishi ^*a
*a = Waseda University, *b = hide kasuga 1896 Inc., *c = Mitsui Chemical Inc.
Date of publication: September 19, 2022
URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9895260
DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3207752

References:

• Waseda University press release:
• LUBMER™ product website