A Soft Robotic Gripper with Sensory Feedback Fabricated by Latex using Coagulant Dipping Process

Abstract

This paper proposes a soft robotic gripper with sensory feedback where the gripper fingers are fabricated using latex by coagulant dipping process. Proposed gripper can be used to handle delicate food items. Gripper consists of a rigid base and four soft actuators. Each soft actuator has four separate chambers inflated using compressed air. The gripper allows two working modes: 1) inflating outwards to open the gripper to approach the objects, 2) inflating inwards to grasp the objects. Experiments to test the material, to determine bending angle variation of single finger with applied pneumatic pressure and comparison of sensor feedback to determine bending angles shown by gripper were done. Another experiment was conducted to grasp and lift different objects using the four fingered gripper to observe the lifting capabilities. The gripper is capable of picking up and hold wide variety of objects with different shapes such as eggs, tomatoes, sponge cakes and measuring beakers. Experiment results showed that finger design yielded different curvature along the finger when pressurized using different pneumatic pressures.