A Positive Pressure Universal Gripper Based on the Jamming of Granular Material

We describe a simple passive universal gripper, consisting of a mass of granular material encased in an elastic membrane. Using a combination of positive and negative pressure, the gripper can rapidly grip and release a wide range of objects that are typically challenging for universal grippers, such as flat objects, soft objects, or objects with complex geometries. The gripper passively conforms to the shape of a target object, then vacuum-hardens to grip it rigidly, later utilizing positive pressure to reverse this transition-releasing the object and returning to a deformable state. We describe the mechanical design and implementation of this gripper and quantify its performance in real-world testing situations. By using both positive and negative pressure, we demonstrate performance increases of up to 85% in reliability, 25% in error tolerance, and the added capability to shoot objects by fast ejection. In addition, multiple objects are gripped and placed at once while maintaining their relative distance and orientation. We conclude by comparing the performance of the proposed gripper with others in the field.

[1]  D. C. Simpson.  Gripping Surfaces for Artificial Hands , 1971, The Hand.

[2]  I. Schmidt,et al.  Flexible moulding jaws for grippers , 1978 .

[3]  Yoji Umetani,et al.  The Development of Soft Gripper for the Versatile Robot Hand , 1978 .

[4]  H. J. Warnecke,et al.  Flexible grippers for handling systems Design possibilities and experiences , 1980 .

[5]  Robert B. Kelley,et al.  General Purpose Hands for Bin-Picking Robots , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[6]  Peter B. Scott.  The ‘Omnigripper’: a form of robot universal gripper , 1985, Robotica.

[7]  Duc Truong Pham,et al.  Strategies for gripper design and selection in robotic assembly , 1991 .

[8]  Karun B. Shimoga,et al.  Robot Grasp Synthesis Algorithms: A Survey , 1996, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[9]  David H. Wolpert,et al.  No free lunch theorems for optimization , 1997, IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput..

[10]  M. Cates,et al.  Jamming, Force Chains, and Fragile Matter , 1998, cond-mat/9803197.

[11]  Andrea J. Liu,et al.  Nonlinear dynamics: Jamming is not just cool any more , 1998, Nature.

[12]  Shigeki Toyama,et al.  International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Design of the TUAT / Karlsruhe Humanoid Hand , 2004 .

[13]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Robotic grasping and contact: a review , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[14]  J. Liu.Andrea,et al.  Jamming and rheology : constrained dynamics on microscopic and macroscopic scales , 2001 .

[15]  S. Naumann,et al.  Multiple finger, passive adaptive grasp prosthetic hand , 2001 .

[16]  Paolo Dario,et al.  Design and development of an underactuated prosthetic hand , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[17]  Clément Gosselin,et al.  Underactuation in robotic grasping hands , 2002 .

[18]  Clément Gosselin,et al.  A Novel Robotic Hand-SARAH For Operations on the International Space Station , 2002 .

[19]  Paolo Dario,et al.  Experimental analysis of an innovative prosthetic hand with proprioceptive sensors , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[20]  Henrik I. Christensen,et al.  Automatic grasp planning using shape primitives , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[21]  Andrea J. Liu,et al.  Jamming at zero temperature and zero applied stress: the epitome of disorder. , 2003, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[22]  Makoto Kaneko,et al.  The 100 G capturing robot - too fast to see , 2003 .

[23]  Paolo Dario,et al.  The SPRING Hand: Development of a Self-Adaptive Prosthesis for Restoring Natural Grasping , 2004, Auton. Robots.

[24]  Masatoshi Ishikawa,et al.  Design of the 100G Capturing Robot Based on Dynamic Preshaping , 2005, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[25]  H. Jaeger,et al.  Structural signature of jamming in granular media , 2005, Nature.

[26]  A.M. Dollar,et al.  A robust compliant grasper via shape deposition manufacturing , 2006, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[27]  Muammer Koç,et al.  Design and feasibility tests of a flexible gripper based on inflatable rubber pockets , 2006 .

[28]  Paul Ciprian Patic,et al.  THE BARRETTHAND GRASPER - PROGRAMMABLY FLEXIBLE PART HANDLING AND ASSEMBLY , 2006 .

[29]  T. Majmudar,et al.  Jamming transition in granular systems. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[30]  Robert D. Howe,et al.  Simple, Robust Autonomous Grasping in Unstructured Environments , 2007, Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[31]  A.M. Dollar,et al.  The SDM Hand as a Prosthetic Terminal Device: A Feasibility Study , 2007, 2007 IEEE 10th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics.

[32]  Takashi Maeno,et al.  Underactuated five-finger prosthetic hand inspired by grasping force distribution of humans , 2008, 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[33]  Ashutosh Saxena,et al.  Robotic Grasping of Novel Objects using Vision , 2008, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[34]  Clément Gosselin,et al.  An anthropomorphic underactuated robotic hand with 15 dofs and a single actuator , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[35]  Clément Gosselin,et al.  Underactuated Robotic Hands , 2008, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics.

[36]  Heinrich M. Jaeger,et al.  Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[37]  Filip Ilievski,et al.  Soft robotics for chemists. , 2011, Angewandte Chemie.