Fabrication and Characterization of Novel Soft Compliant Robotic End-Effectors with Negative Pressure and Mechanical Advantages

Bamotra, Abhishek; Walia, Pushpinder; Prituja, A. V.; Ren, Hongliang

doi:10.1109/icarm.2018.8610688

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…For example, airflow has been used in robot propulsion systems to produce thrust [40], as a pneumatic actuator to control a soft robot's geometry and articulation [30,31], or as a nonprehensile manipulator to move scattered objects [44]. Air manipulation is also used in many robot gripper designs, such as suction grippers [52,48,2] and non-contact grippers, using the Bernoulli principle [7,26,27,6]. Early works also investigated systems that levitated rigid objects using controllable airflow [25,38,8] including non-contact conveyance systems [15,16,17,29,4].…”

Section: Manipulation With Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

DextAIRity: Deformable Manipulation Can be a Breeze

Xu¹,

Cheng²,

Burchfiel³

et al. 2022

Robotics: Science and Systems XVIII

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This paper introduces DextAIRity, an approach to manipulate deformable objects using active airflow. In contrast to conventional contact-based quasi-static manipulations, Dex-tAIRity allows the system to apply dense forces on out-ofcontact surfaces, expands the system's reach range, and provides safe high-speed interactions. These properties are particularly advantageous when manipulating under-actuated deformable objects with large surface areas or volumes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of DextAIRity through two challenging deformable object manipulation tasks: cloth unfolding and bag opening. We present a self-supervised learning framework that learns to effectively perform a target task through a sequence of grasping or air-based blowing actions. By using a closed-loop formulation for blowing, the system continuously adjusts its blowing direction based on visual feedback in a way that is robust to the highly stochastic dynamics. We deploy our algorithm on a real-world three-arm system and present evidence suggesting that DextAIRity can improve system efficiency for challenging deformable manipulation tasks, such as cloth unfolding, and enable new applications that are impractical to solve with quasistatic contact-based manipulations (e.g., bag opening).

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Section: Manipulation With Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

DextAIRity: Deformable Manipulation Can be a Breeze

Xu¹,

Cheng²,

Burchfiel³

et al. 2022

Robotics: Science and Systems XVIII

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“…The soft gripper switched between open and closed states due to Joule heating. This design helped in passively holding objects as the grippers (2020) [20] For picking different kinds of objects 1. Upon receiving pressure or bending values, an electric signal was produced by the TENGs which was used for monitoring the states of the soft actuator.…”

Section: Shape Memory Alloy Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actuation Technologies for Soft Robot Grippers and Manipulators: A Review

et al. 2021

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Purpose of Review The new paradigm of soft robotics has been widely developed in the international robotics community. These robots being soft can be used in applications where delicate yet effective interaction is necessary. Soft grippers and manipulators are important, and their actuation is a fundamental area of study. The main purpose of this work is to provide readers with fast references to actuation technologies for soft robotic grippers in relation to their intended application. Recent Findings The authors have surveyed recent findings on actuation technologies for soft grippers. They presented six major kinds of technologies which are either used independently for actuation or in combination, e.g., pneumatic actuation combined with electro-adhesion, for certain applications. Summary A review on the latest actuation technologies for soft grippers and manipulators is presented. Readers will get a guide on the various methods of technology utilization based on the application.

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“…Common issues in fruit harvesting end-effector designs include failure to isolate clustered fruit [26], insufficient grip-ping strength [27], low harvesting efficiency from high cycle times [28], and damage to the fruit, canopy structures, or the end-effector itself due to bulky mechanical components [29]. Thus, end-effector design is a significant challenging task for researchers, and a wide range of design concepts have been studied with varying degrees of effectiveness and efficiency.…”

Section: End-effector Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

System Design and Control of an Apple Harvesting Robot

Zhang

Lammers

Chu

et al. 2020

Preprint

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There is a growing need for robotic apple harvesting due to decreasing availability and rising cost in labor. Towards the goal of developing a viable robotic system for apple harvesting, this paper presents synergistic mechatronic design and motion control of a robotic apple harvesting prototype, which lays a critical foundation for future advancements. Specifically, we develop a deep learning-based fruit detection and localization system using an RGB-D camera. A three degree-of-freedom manipulator is then designed with a hybrid pneumatic/motor actuation mechanism to achieve fast and dexterous movements. A vacuum-based end-effector is used for apple detaching. These three components are integrated into a robotic apple harvesting prototype with simplicity, compactness, and robustness. Moreover, a nonlinear velocity-based control scheme is developed for the manipulator to achieve accurate and agile motion control. Test experiments are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the developed apple harvesting robot.

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Fabrication and Characterization of Novel Soft Compliant Robotic End-Effectors with Negative Pressure and Mechanical Advantages

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

DextAIRity: Deformable Manipulation Can be a Breeze

DextAIRity: Deformable Manipulation Can be a Breeze

Actuation Technologies for Soft Robot Grippers and Manipulators: A Review

System Design and Control of an Apple Harvesting Robot

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