SBIR Phase I: An Innovative Robotic Jamming Gripper

SBIR 第一阶段：创新型机器人干扰夹具

• 批准号: 1248724
• 负责人: John Amend
• 金额: $ 14.99万
• 依托单位: Empire Robotics, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248724&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Innovative; Robotic; Jamming

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop an innovative robotic gripper that leverages the unique jamming behavior of granular materials to enable a device that can passively conform to objects of varying shape and then vacuum harden to grip them rigidly. These jamming grippers are a unique solution to the need for agile gripping and manipulation of arbitrarily shaped objects with a single gripper ? a need that occurs in manufacturing robotics, prosthetics, and increasingly in home and healthcare robotics. Initial results published in top scientific journals have demonstrated successful implementation of this technique in a laboratory setting. The research objectives of this project are aimed at bringing this innovation out of the lab and demonstrating commercial feasibility. The objectives are: 1) iterative testing and optimization of the outer membrane material for performance and durability that meet industrial thresholds; 2) testing and optimization of granular materials to improve gripper performance and manufacturability; 3) testing grippers of varying size to quantify the influence of scaling on performance; and 4) demonstrating specific manufacturing tasks requested by industry advisors and potential customers. Successful completion of this project will position the team for immediate scale up and production of deliverable units.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is realized by comparing the proposed jamming gripper technology to existing solutions. Alternative robotic gripping solutions range (in increasing price) from vacuum suction cups, to basic jawed grippers, to customized or specialty grippers, and finally to complex multi-fingered hands. The simplicity of the proposed jamming gripper enables a one to two orders of magnitude price reduction over current grippers that achieve similar performance. The first target market will be industrial manufacturing, focusing on tasks where variations in object shape are prevalent (e.g. food handling, pharmaceuticals, bin picking, and kitting/assembly). This gripper is also uniquely positioned to create its own niche market in the simple, repetitive tasks in manufacturing that must currently be performed by human laborers due to prohibitive costs of automation. This will take workers out of uncomfortable and dangerous working conditions, and improve accuracy and efficiency for rate-limiting manufacturing steps. With 3.6 jobs created for each robot employed, this could revitalize small manufacturers struggling to compete today. The flexibility and low cost of a jamming gripper makes it a more agile and reusable component, allowing companies to vary their products more broadly without manufacturing line changes or purchases of new equipment.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一种创新的机器人夹持器，该夹持器利用颗粒材料的独特干扰行为，使设备能够被动地适应不同形状的物体，然后真空硬化以刚性地夹持它们。这些干扰抓手是一个独特的解决方案，需要灵活的抓取和操纵任意形状的物体与一个单一的抓手？这是制造机器人、假肢以及越来越多的家庭和医疗机器人的需求。发表在顶级科学期刊上的初步结果表明，该技术在实验室环境中成功实施。该项目的研究目标是将这种创新带出实验室，并展示商业可行性。其目标是：1）反复测试和优化外膜材料的性能和耐久性，以满足工业阈值; 2）测试和优化颗粒材料，以提高夹持器性能和可制造性; 3）测试不同尺寸的夹持器，以量化缩放对性能的影响;以及4）展示行业顾问和潜在客户要求的特定制造任务。该项目的成功完成将使该团队能够立即扩大规模并生产可交付单元。通过将拟议的干扰夹持器技术与现有解决方案进行比较，可以实现该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力。替代机器人抓取解决方案的范围（在不断增加的价格）从真空吸盘，基本颚式抓手，定制或专业抓手，最后到复杂的多指手。所提出的干扰夹持器的简单性使得与实现类似性能的当前夹持器相比能够实现一到两个数量级的价格降低。第一个目标市场将是工业制造，专注于物体形状变化普遍的任务（例如食品处理，制药，垃圾箱拣选和配套/组装）。这种夹具也具有独特的定位，可以在制造业中的简单重复性任务中创造自己的利基市场，由于自动化成本过高，这些任务目前必须由人工完成。 这将使工人摆脱不舒适和危险的工作条件，并提高限速制造步骤的准确性和效率。 每使用一台机器人就能创造3.6个工作岗位，这可能会重振目前在竞争中苦苦挣扎的小型制造商。 夹持器的灵活性和低成本使其成为更灵活和可重复使用的组件，使公司能够更广泛地改变产品，而无需更换生产线或购买新设备。