Shell Gripper Inspired by Human Finger Structure for Automatically Packaging Agricultural Product
Shell Gripper Inspired by Human Finger Structure for Automatically Packaging Agricultural Product
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DOI：
10.1109/humanoids53995.2022.10000125
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发表时间：
2022-11
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Hiroki Aoyama;Zhongkui Wang;S. Hirai
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文献类型：
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作者：
Hiroki Aoyama;Zhongkui Wang;S. Hirai
软机器人末端执行器已被开发用于抓取食品和农产品。然而，终端效应器，可以同时包装多种农产品在一个集群的情况下还没有经常研究到目前为止。在本文中，我们提出了一个机器人末端执行器能够执行这样的包装任务，对多个黄瓜。末端执行器由多个薄壳夹持器组成，每个夹持器可夹持一根黄瓜。夹壳器由刚性壳体和柔性膜片组成。加压后，软膜可以膨胀以实现抓取动作。这种混合（刚性和柔性）结构受到人类手指结构的启发，手指结构由刚性骨骼或指甲和软组织组成。为了制造夹壳器，我们提出了一种免脱模铸造方法，无需从模具中取出硅橡胶。由于这种新的制造方法，我们能够最大限度地减少夹壳器的厚度。通过实验测量膜膨胀位移以确认抓持能力。最后，进行了9根黄瓜的现场包装试验，结果验证了所提出的机器人末端执行器可以稳定地同时包装多根黄瓜。
Soft robotic end-effectors have been developed for grasping food and agricultural products. However, end-effectors that can package multiple agricultural products simultaneously in a clustered scenario have not been studied frequently so far. In this paper, we propose a robotic end-effector capable of performing such packaging task on multiple cucumbers. The end-effector consists of multiple thin shell grippers and each of them can grasp one cucumber. The shell gripper is composed of a rigid shell and a soft membrane. Upon pressurization, the soft membrane can be inflated to realize a grasping motion. This hybrid (rigid and soft) structure was inspired by human finger structure, which consists of rigid bone or nail and soft tissue. For fabricating the shell gripper, we proposed a demolding-free casting method that eliminates the need of removing silicone rubber from mold. Thanks to this new fabrication method, we are able to minimize the thickness of the shell gripper. The membrane inflation displacement was experimentally measured to confirm the grasping ability. Finally, field tests on packaging nine cucumbers were conducted and results validated that the proposed robotic end-effector can stably package multiple cucumbers simultaneously.