Transparent grippers for robot vision

Abstract

While existing grippers execute manipulation tasks, they occlude parts of the objects they grasp as well as parts of the workspace from vision sensors. We present the concept of a transparent gripper that enables vision sensors to image an object without occlusion while it is being manipulated. The physics of refraction, total internal reflection, lens effects, dispersion and transmittance are analyzed to determine the geometry and material properties of a practical transparent gripper. Algorithms are presented that compensate for image shifts caused by refraction. The experiments demonstrate the proposed gripper to be an effective solution to a variety of problems, including 3D object model generation.