Under-actuated Robotic Gripper with Multiple Grasping Modes Inspired by Human Finger

Abstract

Under-actuated robot grippers, as a pervasive tool of robots, have become a considerable research focus. Despite their simplicity of mechanical design and control strategy, they suffer from poor versatility and weak adaptability, making widespread applications limited. To better address relevant research gaps, we present a novel 3-finger linkage-based gripper that realizes retractable and reconfigurable multi-mode grasps driven by a single motor. Firstly, inspired by the changes occurred in the contact surface with a human finger moving, we artfully design a slider-slide rail mechanism as the phalanx to achieve retraction of each finger, allowing for better performance in the enveloping grasping mode. Secondly, a reconfigurable structure is constructed to broaden the grasping range of objects’ dimensions for the proposed gripper. By adjusting the configuration and gesture of each finger, the gripper can achieve five grasping modes. Thirdly, the proposed gripper is solely actuated by a single motor, yet it can be capable of grasping and reconfiguring simultaneously. Finally, various experiments on grasps of slender, thin, and large-volume objects are implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed gripper in practical scenarios, which demonstrates the excellent grasping capabilities of the gripper.