Detachable Robotic Grippers for Human-Robot Collaboration

Abstract

Collaborative robots promise to add flexibility to production cells thanks to the fact that they can work not only close to humans but also with humans. The possibility of a direct physical interaction between humans and robots allows to perform operations that were inconceivable with industrial robots. Collaborative soft grippers have been recently introduced to extend this possibility beyond the robot end-effector, making humans able to directly act on robotic hands. In this work, we propose to exploit collaborative grippers in a novel paradigm in which these devices can be easily attached and detached from the robot arm and used also independently from it. This is possible only with self-powered hands, that are still quite uncommon in the market. In the presented paradigm not only hands can be attached/detached to/from the robot end-effector as if they were simple tools, but they can also remain active and fully functional after detachment. This ensures all the advantages brought in by tool changers, that allow for quick and possibly automatic tool exchange at the robot end-effector, but also gives the possibility of using the hand capabilities and degrees of freedom without the need of an arm or of external power supplies. In this paper, the concept of detachable robotic grippers is introduced and demonstrated through two illustrative tasks conducted with a new tool changer designed for collaborative grippers. The novel tool changer embeds electromagnets that are used to add safety during attach/detach operations. The activation of the electromagnets is controlled through a wearable interface capable of providing tactile feedback. The usability of the system is confirmed by the evaluations of 12 users.

The Use of Artificial Intelligence with Mechanisms in Robots in the Linkage of the Manufacturing Industry: Systematic Literature Review

“…Furthermore, the model must accurately depict the underlying robot system to produce valid and meaningful verification findings. Consequently, it should consider all potential behaviors of the robot software under real-world hardware and operating system restrictions [32]. Based on the review, it has been established that cooperation is still needed for the use of robots in human work environments in the manufacturing sector [41].…”

Gripper Finger Design for Special Purpose Applications

“…Zubair et al have developed [5] an attachable core gripper for a collaborative robot that can be operated without the robot using its own power source, which is an uncommon solution in the market. Detachable robotic grippers not only work as a fully functional gripper when attached to the robot but also once detached.…”

3D printed passive end-effector for industrial collaborative robotic arms

“…5–8 Some novel end-effectors have a complex actuation and use unconventional materials. 9–12 These systems are usually hardly scalable and not suitable for small collaborative manipulators due to the number of components such as sensors and actuators. Moreover, complex systems or uncommon materials lead to expensive solutions, and they require proper actuation systems.…”