DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A SOFT ROBOTIC GRIPPERFOR OBJECT PICKING

Abstract

In this paper, author proposed a model of a soft robotic gripper made of
elastic rubber material that can pick up a variety of objects. The gripper consists
of three soft fingers evenly spaced on the truncated conical surface. The finger is
made by molding method and design of the finger is inherited from "Pneunets
bending actuator" of soft robotics toolkit. This paper shows soft finger model size
parameters, finite element simulation is performed to validate finger design.
Also, the soft finger fabrication process is introduced together with the driving
circuit and control circuit to perform the soft gripper opening - closing operation.
Experiments are carried out to assess the finger's elasticity at different pressures
and pressures required for handling objects of different sizes and materials. The
experiment is shown that the soft gripper design could be remarkable applied to
pick and place robot for soft object.