Model-based Design and Simulation of a Soft Robotic Gripper for Fabric Material Handling

Abstract

Fabric and textile materials are widely used in many industrial applications, especially in automotive, aviation, and consumer goods. Currently, there is a lack of automatic solutions for rapid and effective fabric handling operations that can be expanded to various applications, causing economic loss, workplace safety issues, and process bottlenecks. As a bio-inspired novel technology, soft robotic grippers provide new opportunities for the automation of fabric handling tasks. In this research, an elastomer-based tendon-actuated soft gripper for fabric pick and place tasks is developed through a model-based design approach. Based on finite element analysis, the gripper design is simulated, modified, and validated. Multiple design variables and their impacts are studied. Detailed motion patterns of the underactuated structure are obtained. After the design is established, a prototype is fabricated trough additive manufacturing and overmolding processes to physically test the functionality of the gripper and further validate the simulation results.

Research progress of automatic grasping methods for garment fabrics

“…When opposed to the first jaw, the “high heel” jaw's opening distance is much smaller, which indicates that it is less suited for holding thick textiles. Wang and Urbanic (2021) also proposed a referenceable solution in 2021 with two independent finger constructions. This is in response to the poor appropriateness of the soft fingers with hollow structure for breathable materials by Ku S et al .…”

“…When one is gripping anything, one may guarantee that there is a precise The motions of a human hand clutching fabric was examined and divided the movements into two categories Koustoumpardis et al (2014Koustoumpardis et al ( , 2018 Major research team for three-finger dexterous hand gripping of fabrics using 3D printing technology Le et al (2013Le et al ( , 2014 and Jilich et al (2021) The main research teams for 2-finger dexterous hand gripping of fabrics, with the flexibility of the gripping head increasing as the research progresses Hinwood et al (2020) Soft finger gripping head Ku et al (2020) For the first time, a pneumatically driven soft finger with hollow structure grip the cloth. The 5 mm micro-needle that is built into the fingertip makes it easier to hold on to almost all highdensity fabrics Su et al (2021) Using soft fingers that are driven by air pressure and have a closed structure makes it possible to grip more types of cloth and almost any kind of fabric can be held on to Wang and Urbanic (2021) Gripping heavy fabrics such as blankets with closed and individually structured soft fingers A soft finger designed with a "high heel" structure to increase the precision of fabric drop Source(s): Authors' own creation Table 1.…”

A Toolchain for Automated Control and Simulation of Robot Teams in Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymers Production

“…Their research, as detailed, e.g., in [29,30], highlighted the significance of advanced textile physics simulation, alongside intuitive robot motion control and high-quality visualization capabilities. This body of work, together with the contributions from Wang and Urbanic (2021) in model-based design and simulation of soft robotic grippers for fabric material handling [31], and Makris et al (2022) on model-based motion planning for human-robot co-manipulation of deformable objects [32], guided our selection of Blender as the optimal simulation environment. Blender's GPL licensing and its comprehensive physic engine (Bullet), as we will demonstrate, offer a detailed process representation that is crucial for our objectives, as illustrated in Figure 3 where one can see the sag of the carbon fiber cut piece.…”

Automated Stack Singulation for Technical Textiles Using Sensor Supervised Low Pressure Suction Grippers

“…When using such a stack, the first and foremost task is to separate single sheets of fabric material from this stack for further handling and manipulation. While processes such as pinch gripping or freeze gripping have been shown to be capable of singulating single plies from a stack, they can lead to undesirable alterations on the gripped ply or the remaining stack underneath [5].…”