Assessment of Direct Microrobotic Gripping for Single Flax Fibre Tensile Tests

This paper deals with first investigations of a disruptive approach to achieve tensile tests of single plant fibres based on direct microrobotic gripping. Usually these tests are carried out by mechanical clamping jaws or using sample holder with adhesive. This new approach intends to bring versatility, automation and the capability to test fibres of much smaller length which is expected to avoid strong statistical bias induced by limitations of current approaches. A microrobotic experimental platform has been developed and two grippers with different gripping jaws are designed to address the important issue of clamping/boundary conditions. Experimental investigations were conducted on 20 tensile tests, validating the viability of the approach. Young's modulus and stress at failure were identified and are in good correspondence with results available in the recent literature of flax fibres. This microrobotics approach is applicable for much smaller fibres, in a faster way and paves the way for large series of experiments possible through future automation.