PFI-TT: A Robotic Gripper with a Tunable Stiffness for Grasping Versatile Objects

PFI-TT：刚度可调的机器人夹具，用于抓取多种物体

• 批准号: 2016445
• 负责人: Hai-Jun Su
• 金额: $ 24.98万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-15 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2016445&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PFI; TT; Robotic; Gripper; Tunable

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project offers a robotic prototype to perform tasks such as sorting, picking, and placing objects that are pervasive in e-commence, warehouse, agriculture automation, and manufacturing. If this robotic gripper is commercialized, it will help small and medium businesses rapidly adjust existing or establish new automation lines in response to market needs, reducing costs and enhancing their competitiveness in the global market. Moreover, the developed technology in the project may be also beneficial to other applications such as high performance prosthetic hands with a variable stiffness for enhanced load-carrying capacity. In the proposed broadening participation plan, Professor Su will work closely with coordinators of the Metro Early College High School (MECHS) in central Columbus to identify and recruit talented (especially minority and underrepresented) MECHS students to complete both a Summer Internship and Capstone Research Internship in the research lab. The proposed project aims to develop a scale-up prototype of a variable stiffness-compliant robotic gripper for versatile tasks in unstructured environments. Current gripper technologies offer either a high payload or a high adaptability, and this may limit their applications. The proposed variable stiffness gripper can be switched between a soft mode to a rigid mode on demand based on a recently developed layer jamming technology. The proposed applied research plan fills several knowledge gaps and overcomes key technical obstacles for commercialization. The applied research tasks are: (1) development of a scaling law to tailor design parameters for a specific performance metric; (2) design optimization of the compliant backbone to further improve the stiffness ratio and enhance robustness of the vacuum bag; (3) development of a scale-up prototype of the robotic gripper and demonstration with an industrial robotic manipulator. The technology combines the merits of rigid-body and soft grippers and may have both a high shape adaptability and a high payload capacity. This gripper technology offers key technical differentiators: significantly increased payload capacity and reduced power consumption in grasping.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这种合作伙伴关系对创新的更广泛的影响/商业潜力 - 技术翻译（PFI-TT）项目提供了一个机器人原型，以执行诸如在电子，仓库，农业自动化和制造中普遍存在的分类，采摘和放置对象等任务。如果这种机器人抓手被商业化，它将有助于中小型企业迅速调整现有或建立新的自动化线，以响应市场需求，降低成本并提高其在全球市场中的竞争力。此外，该项目中开发的技术也可能对其他应用程序有益，例如高性能假肢手，具有可变刚度，可增强负载能力。在拟议的扩大参与计划中，SU教授将与哥伦布中部地铁早期高中（Mechs）的协调员紧密合作，以识别和招募有才华的人（尤其是少数群体和代表性不足）的机械学生，以完成研究实验室中的暑期实习和Capstone研究实习生。拟议的项目旨在开发一个符合可变刚度的机器人抓手的规模原型，用于在非结构化环境中的多功能任务。当前的Gripper Technologies提供高有效载荷或高适应性，这可能会限制其应用程序。根据最近开发的层干扰技术，可以将所提出的可变刚度抓手切换到按需刚性模式之间。拟议的应用研究计划填补了几个知识空白，并克服了商业化的关键技术障碍。应用的研究任务是：（1）制定缩放定律以量身定制特定性能指标的设计参数； （2）设计优化符合性的骨干，以进一步提高刚度比并增强真空袋的鲁棒性； （3）开发机器人抓手的规模原型，并使用工业机器人操纵器进行了演示。该技术结合了刚体和柔软的抓地力的优点，并且可能具有高的适应性和高有效载荷能力。 这项握把技术提供了关键的技术差异化：有效载荷能力可显着提高和掌握功耗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来获得支持的。