Development of Wire Actuated Monolithic Soft Gripper Positioned by Robot Manipulator

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the design and development of a two fingered, monolithically designed compliant gripper mounted on a two-link robot. Rigid grippers traditionally designed by rigid links and joints might have low precision due to friction and backlash. The proposed gripper is designed as a single piece compliant mechanism consisted of several flexible links and actuated by wire through a servo motor. The gripper is attached to a two-link arm robot driven by three step motors. An additional servo motor can also rotate the base of the robot. While the robot is 3D printed using polylactic acid (PLA), the gripper is 3D printed in thermoplasticpolyurethane (TPU). Two force sensors are attached to the right and left ends of the gripper to measure grasping force. Experimental testing for grasping various objects having different sizes, shapes and weights is carried out to verify the robust performance of the proposed design. Through the experimentation, it’s been noted that the compliant gripper can successfully lift up objects at a maximum mass of 200 g and have a better performance if the objects’width is closer to the width of the gripper. The presented mechanism can be utilized as a service robot for elderly people to assist them pick and place objects or lift objects if equipped with necessary sensors.