A New Principle of Adaptive Compliant Gripper

Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shapes and surfaces is a very challenging task. This paper presents an approach of the new principle of a universal gripper with adaptable shape morphing surfaces. The adaptive surfaces will have the controllability by a compliant system with embedded actuators and sensors. The main sensing system has to be made of a conductive silicone rubber or foam. These are carbon-black filled silicone materials with good sensing properties whose electrical resistance is changed by compression. The implemented controllable system will be able to morph shapes of the gripper to accommodate different objects. A methodology for design of the compliant adaptive gripper will be presented. The main advantage of this compliant gripper is the connection of controllability and observability in one system by a compliant mechanism.