The KIT Swiss Knife Gripper for Disassembly Tasks: A Multi-Functional Gripper for Bimanual Manipulation with a Single Arm

Abstract

This work presents the concept of a robotic gripper designed for the disassembly of electromechanical devices that comprises several innovative ideas. Novel concepts include the ability to interchange built-in tools without the need to grasp them, the ability to reposition grasped objects in-hand, the capability of performing classic dual arm manipulation within the gripper and the utilization of classic industrial robotic arms kinematics within a robotic gripper. We analyze state of the art grippers and robotic hands designed for dexterous in-hand manipulation and extract common characteristics and weak points. The presented concept is obtained from the task requirements for disassembly of electromechanical devices and it is then evaluated for general purpose grasping, in-hand manipulation and operations with tools. We further present the CAD design for a first prototype.

Towards reuse and recycling of lithium-ion batteries: tele-robotics for disassembly of electric vehicle batteries

“…Furthermore, for sorting and lifting applications, the complexity of planning and collision avoidance remains an outstanding problem Zhou et al (2019) ; Tang et al (2022) . Other approaches have aimed to reduce complexity of disassembly in various settings through tool design, such as gripper extensions Borràs et al (2018) or flexible grippers Schmitt et al (2011) , to assist with unscrewing, grasping and other contact-rich manipulation tasks. However, even with such adaptations, autonomous approaches suffer from difficulties with generalisation to a range of tasks and across differing battery designs.…”

The KIT Gripper: A Multi-Functional Gripper for Disassembly Tasks

“…In our previously presented concept, the KIT Swiss knife gripper [3], we described the concept for a multi-functional gripper for bimanual manipulation with a single arm and discussed the advantages for disassembly tasks over a conventional approach with a disassembly line. Several experiments with a first prototype of the gripper showed, however, that the proposed SCARA arm kinematic in our previous work with 4 DoF is not sufficient for the execution of all disassembly actions of a HDD.…”

“…1) as well as methods for kinesthetic teaching and autonomous disassembly. The gripper is based on our previously presented concept of the KIT Swiss knife gripper [3] with optimizations of the kinematics, sensors and embedded systems and has been designed for dismantling operations that normally require bimanual manipulation but are performed with a single arm and exchangeable tools.…”

Disassembly 4.0: A Review on Using Robotics in Disassembly Tasks as a Way of Automation

“…In‐hand manipulation and high versatility are features of the KIT Swiss Knife Gripper presented by Borras et al. and a flexible gripper by Schmitt et al , whereas Feldmann et al and Nave et al state that (semi‐)destructive disassembly is mostly a better way to efficiently install processes rather than complex and time‐consuming operations with specialized tools.…”