On the design of a 'scrollic' gripper for firm 3D grasping

Abstract

Abstract A parallel-jaw gripper is a very useful tool for robot manipulation tasks due to its simple mechanism and control. This fact limits the range of successful grasps it can undergo, and also makes it unfeasible under uncertainties. Thus, it is desirable to improve its dexterity and manipulability. In this paper, we propose a new design of a two-fingered parallel gripper that utilizes rolling at the contacts for object repositioning and reorientation, aimed at effective firm grasps. We name it the scrollic gripper, an acronym for synchronously closing with rolling constraints. At first, the background to utilize the rolling constraints is described. Then, grasping and manipulation of the gripper are discussed. In grasp acquisition, we propose a quality function for evaluating grasp stability. The sophisticated hardware and functioning for the scrollic gripper consist, basically, on implementation of an additional degree-of-freedom to the conventional parallel-jaw gripper, leading to grasp acquisition and secure grasping.