A 3-Finger Robotic Gripper for Grasping Fabrics Based on Cams-Followers Mechanism

In this paper, a 3-finger gripper is developed for grasping fabrics that are folded or unfolded. Its design is based on the investigation of human fingers’ movements in grasping a piece of fabric that is laid on a table and it is conceptualized using the theory of cam-follower design. The concept, the design and the prototype of the gripper are presented, along with the analysis for specifying the characteristics and parameters of the mechanism. The proposed gripper has a camshaft with three cams (2-axial and 1-globoidal), guided by only one actuator, for moving the three fingers (2-linear motions and 1-rotational). A prototype of the gripper is implemented using 3D printing technique which keeps the total cost and weight very low. The prototype has been tested experimentally under several grasping tasks, where its efficiency is demonstrated.