Development of a Flexible Gripper with Three Pneumatic Actuators

Abstract

As the field of automation system expands widely with technological advances, the variety of highly adaptable end effectors and their mechanical freedom become significant. Rigid gripper, initially popular, now faces new challenges in various robotic applications because its movement is limited with an inflexible mechanical configuration of the link and joint. In this paper, a flexible gripper with three pneumatic actuators is developed for handling fragile or unshaped objects. The mapping between the pneumatic actuator and air pressure has nonlinear characteristics for motion control. Furthermore, it can change slightly by a small difference in manufacturing condition. The actuators, made from silicon, are driven pneumatically with a controller of the micro-processor. We demonstrated a classic robot task of turning a fragile light bulb into a socket by the flexible gripper, which has been regarded as an arduous job for the rigid gripper.