PFI-TT: A Robotic Gripper with a Tunable Stiffness for Grasping Versatile Objects

这一创新技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力提供了一个机器人原型，以执行诸如分类、挑选和放置在电子商务、仓库、农业自动化和制造中普遍存在的对象等任务。如果这种机器人夹持器商业化，将帮助中小企业迅速调整现有的或建立新的自动化生产线，以应对市场需求，降低成本，增强它们在全球市场的竞争力。此外，该项目中开发的技术还可能有利于其他应用，如具有可变刚度的高性能假手，以增强承载能力。在拟议的扩大参与计划中，苏教授将与哥伦布中部的麦德龙早教高中(MECS)的协调人密切合作，寻找和招募有才华的(特别是少数族裔和代表性不足的)MECS学生，以完成研究实验室的暑期实习和Capstone研究实习。拟议的项目旨在开发一种适用于非结构化环境中多用途任务的可变刚度兼容机器人抓取器的放大原型。目前的夹持器技术要么提供高有效载荷，要么提供高适应性，这可能限制其应用。基于最近发展的层干扰技术，所提出的变刚度夹持器可以根据需要从软模式切换到刚性模式。拟议的应用研究计划填补了几个知识空白，并克服了商业化的关键技术障碍。应用的研究任务是：(1)发展尺度定律，为特定的性能指标量身定做设计参数；(2)柔顺主干的设计优化，以进一步改善真空袋的刚度比并增强其稳健性；(3)开发机器人夹持器的放大原型，并以工业机器人机械手进行演示。该技术结合了刚体夹持器和柔性夹持器的优点，既具有较高的形状适应性，又具有较高的承载能力。这种夹爪技术提供了关键的技术差异：显著增加了有效载荷能力，并在掌握方面降低了功耗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project offers a robotic prototype to perform tasks such as sorting, picking, and placing objects that are pervasive in e-commence, warehouse, agriculture automation, and manufacturing. If this robotic gripper is commercialized, it will help small and medium businesses rapidly adjust existing or establish new automation lines in response to market needs, reducing costs and enhancing their competitiveness in the global market. Moreover, the developed technology in the project may be also beneficial to other applications such as high performance prosthetic hands with a variable stiffness for enhanced load-carrying capacity. In the proposed broadening participation plan, Professor Su will work closely with coordinators of the Metro Early College High School (MECHS) in central Columbus to identify and recruit talented (especially minority and underrepresented) MECHS students to complete both a Summer Internship and Capstone Research Internship in the research lab. The proposed project aims to develop a scale-up prototype of a variable stiffness-compliant robotic gripper for versatile tasks in unstructured environments. Current gripper technologies offer either a high payload or a high adaptability, and this may limit their applications. The proposed variable stiffness gripper can be switched between a soft mode to a rigid mode on demand based on a recently developed layer jamming technology. The proposed applied research plan fills several knowledge gaps and overcomes key technical obstacles for commercialization. The applied research tasks are: (1) development of a scaling law to tailor design parameters for a specific performance metric; (2) design optimization of the compliant backbone to further improve the stiffness ratio and enhance robustness of the vacuum bag; (3) development of a scale-up prototype of the robotic gripper and demonstration with an industrial robotic manipulator. The technology combines the merits of rigid-body and soft grippers and may have both a high shape adaptability and a high payload capacity. This gripper technology offers key technical differentiators: significantly increased payload capacity and reduced power consumption in grasping.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.