LAB

<latex>{\fontsize{13t}\selectfont\textbf{Mechanical Design of a Robot Gripper with Soft Skin}}</latex>

<latex>{\fontsize{11pt}\selectfont \textbf{Krishna Manaswi Digumarti}} </latex>
<latex>{\fontsize{10pt}\selectfont \textit{Semester Project RSC}} </latex>

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{Abstract} </latex>

This project introduces the mechanical design of a one degree of freedom robotic gripper that is used as a test platform for investigating the effect that soft materials have on the ability of robots to perform control tasks. Particularly, we describe the construction of a gripper that would be used to catch objects dropped from a pre-defined height. The robot is equipped with replaceable skin that would be used to test various types of soft materials. We describe the process of choosing a compact geometry and a suitable mechanism for this task. We also present results of simulations that help us predict measurements in practice.

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{The gripper} </latex>
We designed the gripper to be able to generate 250N of gripping force and complete a full snapping motion within a short span of 0.45s. The arms of the gripper are cut from aluminum and the tips are covered in replaceable skin. The actuator is a 150W RE40 DC motor from Maxon coupled with a compact 8×2.5 ball screw. A miniature load cell from burster is sandwiched between the actuator and the mechanism to measure the forge input to the gripper. Two high resolution incremental encoders from Avago are used to determine the orientation of the gripping arms.

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{Mechanism}} </latex>

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{}} </latex>
Figure above shows the upper half of the gripping mechanism with the geometry superposed.

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{Assembly}} </latex>
The following pictures show all the components as assembled in the setup.

<latex> {\fontsize{12pt}\selectfont \textbf{Future Work}} </latex>
The gripper would be put to test in catching objects dropped from within a certain specified height range. Objects would be varied in size, shape and texture. The material of the skin is also a parameter to control. The gripper's performance in all these various conditions would be evaluated.