Development of Flexible Gripper Mechanism Design and Variable Stiffness Technology Research

doi:10.3901/JME.2024.13.281

Abstract

Abstract: Gripper is an important part of the operational robot system, and its operational form and performance determine the overall capability of the robot. Through the innovative design of the gripper can effectively reduce the dependence of the robot on material processing, parts assembly, sensing and control algorithms, and significantly improve the robotics ability to adapt to complex operating environments and objects. The present types of robot grippers are mainly divided into two categories: rigid gripper and flexible gripper. Compared with rigid grippers, flexible grippers have good advantages in unknown environment, gripping geometrically non-regular objects, gripping fragile objects on the surface and safe human-robot interaction. At the same time, the flexible gripper in the realisation of smooth deformation is also accompanied by the existence of a small output and poor operating accuracy due to the lack of structural rigidity, which has not yet been well resolved. Therefore, how to keep the load output capacity of the flexible gripper while providing smooth deformation is a problem that needs to be solved urgently at present. This paper focuses on the common topic of institutional design and variable stiffness technology of flexible gripper, combined with the requirements of enhancing the shape adaptability and operational load capacity of flexible gripper, detailed analyses of the significant progress and shortcomings in the development of flexible gripper from the two aspects of the configuration design and variable stiffness technology. The development technology and the main challenges faced by the flexible gripper are summarised systematically and providing new ideas for the multi-functional and intelligent development of the flexible gripper, expanding the application fields of the flexible gripper and enhancing the overall operation capability of the robot.

Key words: flexible gripper, smooth deformation, self-adaptation, mechanism design, variable stiffness

CLC Number:

TP24

PAN Jie, YU Jingjun, PEI Xu. Development of Flexible Gripper Mechanism Design and Variable Stiffness Technology Research[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2024, 60(13): 281-296.

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