A Variable Stiffness Soft Gripper Using Granular Jamming and Biologically Inspired Pneumatic Muscles

作     者：Loai AI Abeach Samia Nefti-Meziani Theo Theodoridis Steve Davis 

作者机构：Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research Centre University of Salford Salford M5 4WT UK Computer Engineering Department College of Engineering Basra University Basra 61004 Iraq 

出 版 物：《Journal of Bionic Engineering》 (仿生工程学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第15卷第2期

页      面：236-246页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0831[工学-生物医学工程（可授工学、理学、医学学位）] 0821[工学-纺织科学与工程] 07[理学] 08[工学] 09[农学] 0836[工学-生物工程] 082104[工学-服装设计与工程] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research  Iraq 

主　　题：biologically inspired robots variable stiffness actuation soft robotics soft grippers pneumatic muscles 

摘      要：As the domains, in which robots operate change the objects a robot may be required to grasp and manipulate, are likely to vary sig- nificantly and often. Furthermore there is increasing likelihood that in the future robots will work collaboratively alongside people. There has therefore been interest in the development of biologically inspired robot designs which take inspiration from nature. This paper pre- sents the design and testing of a variable stiffness, three fingered soft gripper, which uses pneumatic muscles to actuate the fingers and granular jamming to vary their stiffness. This gripper is able to adjust its stiffness depending upon how fragile/deformable the object being grasped is. It is also lightweight and low inertia, making it better suited to operation near people. Each finger is formed from a cylindrical rubber bladder filled with a granular material. It is shown how decreasing the pressure inside the finger increases the jamming effect and raises finger stiffness. The paper shows experimentally how the finger stiffness can be increased from 21 N·m^-1 to 71 N·m^-1. The paper also describes the kinematics of the fingers and demonstrates how they can be position-controlled at a range of different stiffness values.