Soft Robotics Commercialization: Jamming Grippers from Research to Product

Abstract

Recent work in the growing field of soft robotics has demonstrated a number of very promising technologies. However, to make a significant impact in real-world applications, these new technologies must first transition out of the laboratory through successful commercialization. Commercialization is perhaps the most critical future milestone facing the field of soft robotics today, and this process will reveal whether the apparent impact we now perceive has been appropriately estimated. Since 2012, Empire Robotics has been one of the first companies to attempt to reach this milestone through our efforts to commercialize jamming-based robotic gripper technology in a product called VERSABALL Ò . However, in spring 2016 we are closing our doors, having not been able to develop a sustainable business around this technology. This article presents some of the key takeaways from the technical side of the commercialization process and lessons learned that may be valuable to others. We hope that sharing this information will provide a frame of reference for technology commercialization that can help others motivate research directions and maximize research impact.

Soft Robotic Grippers

“…Stiffness change achievable with this technology is reported to be up to 24 times . The rate of stiffness change is rather fast; 0.1–1.1 s to solidify, and 0.1–1 s to liquefy . Transition time generally depends on the pressure difference and flow rate provided by the pump, and the volume of granule‐filled bag.…”

Hands in the Real World

“…Typical tasks, such as in warehouses and production lines, require robotic systems that are cheap, robust, easy to control, and capable to reliably grasping a large variety of objects (Kragten et al, 2012;Asfour et al, 2018;SHUNK Robotics, 2019). For this reason in the last years many companies have exploited pneumatic actuation for the development of soft continuous grippers (Soft Robotics Company, 2019) or non-conventional granular grippers (Brown et al, 2010;Amend et al, 2016). Simplicity in integration and use is prioritized for this robotic equipment such that it can be employed by non-expert users (Franka Emika, 2019;Robotiq, 2019).…”

Flexible Medical Devices: Review of Controllable Stiffness Solutions

“…The granular jamming principle is applied to develop universal grippers [85][86][87]112], user interfaces [107] and finger-based grippers [112]. In [12,89], a robotic arm uses the granular jamming with ground coffee as the granular material in combination with tensioning wires to increase the stiffness of the structure.…”