An Origami-Inspired Reconfigurable Suction Gripper for Picking Objects With Variable Shape and Size

Abstract

Gripper adaptability to handle objects of different shape and size brings high flexibility to manipulation. Gripping flat, round, or narrow objects poses challenges to even the most sophisticated robotic grippers. Among various gripper technologies, the vacuum suction grippers provide design simplicity, yet versatility at low cost, however, their application is limited to their fixed shape and size. Here, we present an origamiinspired reconfigurable suction gripper to address adaptability with robotic suction grippers. Constructed from rigid and soft components and driven by compact shape memory alloy actuators, the gripper can effectively self-fold into three shape modes to pick large and small flat, narrow cylindrical, triangular and spherical objects. The 10-g few centimeters gripper, lifts loads up to 5 N, 50 times its weight. We also present an underactuated prototype, demonstrating the versatility of our design and actuation methods.

Materials as Machines

“…Copyright 2013, Elsevier B.V. d) A suction gripper is prepared from SMA to pick up objects of different geometries. Reproduced with permission 62. Copyright 2018, IEEE.…”

“…SMA coils have also been recently embedded in soft silicone robotic arms functionalized with Hall sensors that provide feedback for self‐regulation of deformation and motion 61. Paik and co‐workers describe a device based on SMA coils integrated into an origami‐inspired suction gripper composed of silicone, glass fiber, and PET sublayers (Figure 4d) 62. Multiple shape transformation modes (Mode 1–3 in Figure 4d) are realized including the gripping and lifting of flat, cylindrical, triangular, and spherical shaped objects.…”

Pinch Grasp and Suction for Delicate Object Manipulations Using Modular Anthropomorphic Robotic Gripper with Soft Layer Enhancements

“…Even the stiffness of the soft structures can be varied by controlled actuation [12]. Employing suction to a gripper will improve the grasping capabilities and is employed in several industrial object handling end effectors [13,14]. This technology is inspired by nature from certain cephalopods that have suction based specialized anatomical features for object manipulation [15].…”

“…Even objects heavier than the suction cup itself with a non-porous surface can be lifted with sufficient negative pressure input. Research works have been done to improve such suction grasps focusing on the better suction interface [14], suction mechanism [18], control methodologies [19], etc.…”

“…Table 1 shows the consolidated information on some of the above-mentioned grippers or end effectors with the proposed gripper (last two rows of the table). While some of these existing works incorporate suction cups in together with rigid mechanisms, they do not adjust to delicate object structures like an independent soft actuator [14,23]. Integrated suction cups in [17] and [22] were only able to handle objects with planar and rigid surfaces.…”