Design and fabrication of soft gripper using 3D printer

Abstract

Soft robotics is the most emerging subject in the present world. This paper focuses on the grippers (end effectors) that are attached with robots to interact with the environment. We proposed soft robot gripper with a modular design of cad model, which can hold multiple types of objects. This soft gripper consists of four fingers which are attached commonly and a holder which is used to attach the gripper to robot. All components were 3D printed and the soft finger structure is made molding technique using platinum cure silicon rubber. The fingers analysis is done in using finite element (FE) analysis by applying different loads. The bending of finger is obtained by providing pressurized air. A curvature sensor is integrated inside each finger to measure the curvature or bending angle during grasping. The proposed gripper could grasp and lift objects with different shapes and weights.