Design and Implementation of Bio-Inspired Soft Robotic Grippers

Abstract

A gripper is a part of a system or single device which could hold certain objects as solid materials. Soft Robotics is a new way to achieve a certain robotic mechanism which cannot be performed by the rigid body, for example, soft robots do not break and have better flexibility. In this work, four different grippers are designed from various bioinspired gripping mechanisms. These soft robotic grippers are used for gripping different types of objects such as soft materials, food items, delicate items, etc., which cannot be gripped by the conventional rigid body robotic gripper. Fingers of these soft grippers are made with soft silicone material and their base is made with Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS). The four grippers are actuated by pneumatic pressure, shape memory alloy wire and electromagnets. We have done experiments with these grippers for testing their gripping mechanism and force generated by the fingers while gripping an object.