SBIR-STTR Award

American Remote Vision Company (ARVC) will research and develop a novel new type of non-pyrotechnic latch and release system for use in servicing umbilical applications (as well as an enormous range of other aerospace and commercial applications). This device (whose starting point is the ancient "chinese fingercuff") will be a robust, reliable, reusable latch; scalable over many orders of magnitude in size and load; capable of gripping or releasing in milliseconds; and useful in lunar regolith environment. The concept has already been proved at the 1,000 pound level. We will develop the theory of operation in grab, hold, and release modes (and maybe failure modes). We will build prototypes and test them to verify the math models.

American remote Vision Company (ARVC) will continue to research and develop a new non-pryotechnic latch and release sytem for use in servicing and flight release applications, among others. We have built and demostrated prototypes from the 20 pound range to the 2000 pound range. The devices are force multipliers, where the force increases linearly with initial grip force, and exponentially with overall grip length. The prototypes are of two basic varieties (a) linear basket "fingercuff" grippers with actuation mechanisms, and (b) rotational grippers with actuation mechanisms. We have invented a method to precisely control both versions, for controlled release applications. The devices are simple, reliable, inherently reusable, nonfouling, and fault tolerant.