ORCID Profile
0000-0002-1641-8562
Current Organisation
Chongqing University
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Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 19-02-2021
Abstract: Soft pneumatic grippers (SPGs) have shown great grasping performances for various objects due to their simplicity, adaptability and rapid response. However, there are few SPGs that can grasp both flat and non-planar targets robustly. A reconfigurable mechanism that can transform the gripper into different states for grasping varied objects is desired by such versatile SPGs. Paper fortune teller (PFT) is a distinctive origami with 2D/3D shape switchability and 3D shape reconfigurability. In this paper, we propose a novel reconfigurable SPG which is inspired from PFT and augmented with an indirect vacuum adhesion (IVA) mechanism. The resultant gripper can not only lift flat-surface objects such as a piece of square glass (278 g) with the IVA force in its pad shape, but also pick up non-planar objects such as an orange (151 g) in a traditional grasping way in its four-converging-fingered shape. The experimental results reveal that our gripper can produce a maximum IVA force of about 4.24 N on acrylic plates and a maximum pulling force of about 2.10 N on 3D-printed non-planar objects respectively. The gripper’s traditional grasping robustness is also demonstrated when non-planar objects are placed irregularly (allowing up to 55 mm multi-orientation offsets or 20° multi-orientation drift angles). This new SPG design realizes the multi-function nature of origami transformation and is expected to promote the application of origami and soft gripper technologies.
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 2023
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2023
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 11-09-2020
Abstract: Soft pneumatic grippers (SPGs), made of highly stretchable elastomer materials with internal fluidic channels, are a popular soft robotic gripping technology, and have been configured as soft bending fingers for passively compliant grasping applications. It is challenging, however, for current SPGs to grip both flat, concave, and convex surfaces. Controllable adhesion augmented SPGs are promising solutions. We aim to develop a composite gripper structure that could enable SPGs with the capability to lift flat, concave, and convex surfaces using pneumatic inputs only. To this end, we present PneuIVAVS, a layer-jamming induced active vacuum adhesion (VA) augmented and variable stiffness (VS) fiber-reinforced SPG. This integrated PneuIVAVS design has enabled the gripper to generate a VA force without the requirement that all suction units should work. Also, a VA force analytical model and a shape-locking model of the PneuIVAVS design were developed and experimentally validated. In addition, the PneuIVAVS gripper presented good performance on gripping both flat, concave and convex objects with a range of contacting areas. According to the load capacity test, the gripper could grasp a maximum of approximately 470 g, 683 g, and 268 g when handling flat, concave, and convex surfaces respectively. Besides, the gripper could grasp curved surfaces with a minimum radius of curvature between 30 and 40 mm. The PneuIVAVS concept, design, and results in this work have potential to promote the applications of SPGs and VA grippers in various material handling and robotics tasks.
No related grants have been discovered for Rui Chen.