Dual-durometer combination of vacuum cup for aerial grasping

In the application of a conventional vacuum cup, a large compression force is required to eliminate the gap between the end of the cup and the object surface. However, the large interaction force will be a challenge for micro flying robots to grasp the object in the air using the suction cup as a gripper. To address the problem, a dual-durometer combined vacuum cup for aerial grasping is proposed. The combined cup is composed of one outer hard cup and one inner soft cup. The soft cup is longer than the hard one so the initial contact phase is implemented by the soft cup. The required compression force to engage the soft cup is dramatically decreased. The hard cup will be guided and pressed by the adhesion force induced by the soft one. Therefore, a larger adhesion force can be provided by the outer hard cup. The comparative experiments of static error-tolerance and aerial grasping have been conducted. The results demonstrate that the required contact pressure is significantly reduced and the object can be grasped robustly.

[1]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Cooperative Grasping and Transport Using Multiple Quadrotors , 2010, DARS.

[2]  Danica Kragic,et al.  Perching and resting—A paradigm for UAV maneuvering with modularized landing gears , 2019, Science Robotics.

[3]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  Grasping from the air: Hovering capture and load stability , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[4]  Aaron M. Dollar,et al.  Design of hands for aerial manipulation: Actuator number and routing for grasping and perching , 2014, 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[5]  Rami A. Mattar,et al.  Development of a Wall-Sticking Drone for Non-Destructive Ultrasonic and Corrosion Testing , 2018 .

[6]  Hideyuki Tsukagoshi,et al.  Aerial manipulator with perching and door-opening capability , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[7]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  Compliant and Lightweight Anthropomorphic Finger Module for Aerial Manipulation and Grasping , 2015, ROBOT.

[8]  Heping Chen,et al.  Impedance control of a bio-inspired flying and adhesion robot , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[9]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  Detection, Location and Grasping Objects Using a Stereo Sensor on UAV in Outdoor Environments , 2017, Sensors.

[10]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Design, modeling, estimation and control for aerial grasping and manipulation , 2011, 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[11]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Perching with a robotic insect using adaptive tracking control and iterative learning control , 2016, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[12]  Jeff S. Shamma,et al.  An Intelligent Gripper Design for Autonomous Aerial Transport with Passive Magnetic Grasping and Dual-Impulsive Release , 2018, 2018 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM).

[13]  Stefano Stramigioli,et al.  Mechanism for perching on smooth surfaces using aerial impacts , 2016, 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR).

[14]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Toward autonomous avian-inspired grasping for micro aerial vehicles , 2014, Bioinspiration & biomimetics.

[15]  Stefano Stramigioli,et al.  Autonomous and sustained perching of multirotor platforms on smooth surfaces , 2017, 2017 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED).

[16]  Jianhua Zhang,et al.  Climbing Reconnaissance Drone Design , 2018 .

[17]  Masahiro Fujita,et al.  Development of universal vacuum gripper for wall-climbing robot , 2018, Adv. Robotics.

[18]  Hiroki Shigemune,et al.  Stretchable Suction Cup with Electroadhesion , 2018, Advanced Materials Technologies.

[19]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  Aerial Manipulation: A Literature Review , 2018, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.