Soft Suction Gripper With Flexible Wing Structures for Gripping Hollow Irregularly Shaped Objects

초록

Despite the recent improvements and wide spread of robotic applications, there are still limitations in meeting the increasing demand for grippers capable of gripping thin and irregularly shaped objects. Especially, handle-shaped objects, which consist of a thin and irregular rod structure with a hollow space underneath, are difficult to grip with conventional grippers. For example, a mechanical jaw gripper has problems with the object's small contact area on the irregular and thin lateral surface, and a suction gripper has problems with the narrow and rounded upper surface where the gripper can adhere. These distinctive morphological characteristics of handles make them difficult for general grippers to grip. This is because most handles are considered only for ergonomic design for humans, so high degree-of-freedom dexterous robot hands with complex human-mimetic motion have been required. To manipulate these handle-shaped irregular objects, which consist of a hollow space underneath the thin structure, this paper proposes a soft suction gripper equipped with flexible wing structures. In the proposed gripper, when contact with an object occurs, embedded wires induce deformation of the flexible wing structures to wrap around the handle-shaped object, multiplying the gripping forces by reaching even underneath the upper surface. Through this gripping mechanism, the proposed gripper is capable of reliably gripping various handle-shaped objects with irregular and uneven surfaces, as well as delicately manipulating the inlet cover of an electric car during the charging sequence.

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