Design of a Soft Gripper Hand for a Quadruped Robot

Abstract

This work aims to solve a current balancing problem for a quadruped robot by proposing a soft gripper. The main problem for the project is the lack of modules to make a quadruped robot walk through tough environments, which is designed to help in accidents to look for people and maintenance in factories. Viable solutions for the main body were found with a look alike chameleon robot. With that premise, the goal for the chameleon robot is to have a capable of moving through difficult surfaces and to have enough movement so to get better results in the displacement. To fulfill this requirement, the proposed key idea presented here is to design a gripper capable of helping the main body to achieve difficult places being as safe as possible. Furthermore, the gripper is an actual module for the main robot, and should be easy to substitute and build, in case it is needed in other situations. Because of that, the gripper is designed with the help of soft robotics. Experimental results in lab show the effectiveness of the soft gripper. We anticipate this system will help the robot to use the force effectively through each step.