Adaptive Gripper With Pantograph Arms and Elastomeric Fingers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing industrial grippers lack the ability to adapt automatically to components with markedly different shapes and sizes while ensuring stability and simplicity, requiring complex control systems.
Innovation Solution
A gripping device with a pantograph linkage and elastomeric gripping fingers that can adjust to varying shapes and sizes, featuring a wedge-shaped configuration and a simple control system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a gripper is designed with a dedicated configuration for specific shapes and sizes, then gripping stability is improved, but adaptability to different components deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The gripping device employs pantograph linkages that enable the gripping arms to dynamically adjust their positions and orientations. The linkages allow the arms to move along curved paths and adapt to different component geometries while maintaining stable gripping contact points, thus achieving both adaptability and gripping stability through dynamic reconfiguration rather than fixed dedicated configurations
Solution Approach 2:
The gripper design uses universal gripping arms with pantograph linkages that can handle multiple types of components with varying shapes and sizes. The standardized arm structure combined with adjustable degrees of freedom allows a single gripper configuration to serve multiple gripping functions across different component types, eliminating the need for dedicated configurations for each component type
2Adaptability or versatility
If a gripper is designed to handle pieces of different shapes and sizes, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The pantograph linkage mechanism provides inherent adaptability through its geometric properties. The linkages naturally guide the gripping arms along predetermined curved paths, allowing automatic adaptation to different component shapes and sizes without requiring complex active control systems. The adaptability emerges from the passive geometric constraints of the linkage mechanism itself
Solution Approach 2:
The gripping device utilizes the pantograph linkages to automatically position and orient the gripping arms based on the component geometry. The mechanism self-adjusts through its mechanical constraints, eliminating the need for external sensors, actuators, or control algorithms to achieve adaptability. The structure serves its own positioning function through its inherent geometric properties
3Adaptability or versatility
If a gripper uses complex control systems to adapt to different components, then adaptability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The pantograph linkage mechanism automatically adapts to different component geometries through its passive mechanical constraints. The linkages inherently guide the gripping arms to optimal positions without requiring external control inputs, sensors, or complex algorithms. The system performs the adaptation function autonomously through its mechanical design, greatly simplifying operation
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces complex electronic control systems with a purely mechanical pantograph linkage mechanism. The adaptation function that would traditionally require sensors, motors, and control algorithms is achieved through the geometric properties and mechanical constraints of the linkage structure, eliminating the need for complex control electronics and simplifying the overall system
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device provides high flexibility and reliability in gripping components with diverse shapes and sizes without complex control, ensuring stable and efficient handling.
Implementation Method 1
Each gripping arm (4) comprises a proximal portion (6), configured in the form of a pantograph linkage, which is carried by a bracket (8) rigidly connected to the respective arm support (5)
Implementation Method 2
the distal portion (7) of each gripping arm (4) is in the form of a gripping finger (7), having a wedge-shaped configuration... the body of the gripping finger (7) has a central opening (700)
Data Source
AI summary
A gripping device used on a robot for handling pieces or components includes a main supporting structure, defining a main axis, and a plurality of gripping arms, each of which includes a first, proximal, arm portion and a second, distal, arm portion. Each gripping arm constitutes a modular unit, which can be assembled as a whole on the main supporting structure. The proximal arm portion is a pantograph linkage configured such that, during a movement of articulation of the proximal arm portion, the distal arm portion remains parallel to itself. The electric motor associated to each gripping arm is arranged with its axis parallel to the main axis. The pantograph linkage is controlled by the respective electric driving motor. The distal portion of each gripping arm has a body made of a single piece of elastomeric material, in the form of a gripping finger.