A Dexterous Gripper for Space Robotics

Abstract

T'he paper summarises the work done so far by four Ilniversity groups involved in a joint project for the development of a medium-complexity robotic gripper, respectively developing the mechanical design (DIEMl3ologna), the sensory and control system (DEIS-Bologna), the dynamic simulation (DEl-Milano) and the sensor fusion (DII-Parma). The gripper has been designed in order to perform low- and medium-complexity space-lab manipulation tasks, aiming to achieve a trade-off between simple twin-jawed grippers and highly sophisticated multidegree-of-freedom hands. It presents a three-finger, threedegree-of-freedom architecture and is capable of ~ychronous application of the grasping contacts, so that force-closure grasps can be achieved on irregularly shaped objects even floating in micro-gravity conditions. Proximity sensors and intrinsic contact force sensors installed on each finger can allow object shape recognition together with control of approaching and grasping procedures. The capability of being tele-operated is addressed