Article
Automation & Control Systems
Shangkui Yang, Yongxiang Zhou, Ian D. Walker, Chenghao Yang, David T. Branson, Zhibin Song, Jian Sheng Dai, Rongjie Kang
Summary: In this article, a soft gripper inspired by the biological structures of multitentacled animals or plants is proposed. It uses a cluster of tentacles to achieve omnidirectional envelope and high tolerance to dynamic targets, enabling efficient capture.
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Francesco Visentin, Fabio Castellini, Riccardo Muradore
Summary: In this study, a soft and sensorized gripper is proposed for harvesting applications. The gripper utilizes machine learning-based approaches to control the force exerted on fruits and vegetables. Experimental results demonstrate accurate force measurement and high rates of plant and fruit identification, as well as successful fruit picking without direct cutting in a laboratory scenario.
COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Lei Liu, Junshi Zhang, Geng Liu, Zicai Zhu, Qiao Hu, Pengfei Li
Summary: In this article, we designed and fabricated a three-fingered stiffness-tunable soft gripper with internal bending actuators and external fiber-jamming jackets to achieve flexible grasping performance. Experimental measurements of the bending angle and blocking force were compared with theoretical predictions. By incorporating stiffness-tunable property, the soft gripper's load-carrying capability and grasping performance of various weights and types of goods were investigated.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Yigen Wu, Guolong Zeng, Jinbin Xu, Jiahong Zhou, Xinqi Chen, Zhongbao Wang, Zhuo Chen, Zhenjin Xu, Jianyi Zheng, Dezhi Wu
Summary: Traditional pneumatic soft grippers have difficulty in stably grasping objects due to their lack of flexibility and stability. Inspired by the multi-knuckle structure of human fingers, a multi-knuckle pneumatic soft finger is proposed, which enables dexterous manipulation with a larger travelling space, tunable output blocking force, and multiple pneumatic controlling modes. A pneumatic soft gripper is constructed based on this multi-knuckle soft finger to demonstrate grasping of various objects. Furthermore, a 15-degree-of-freedom anthropomorphic hand is fabricated using these soft fingers to mimic human hand gestures and play the piano, suggesting new possibilities for designing dexterous pneumatic soft robots.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Xing Wang, Hanwen Kang, Hongyu Zhou, Wesley Au, Michael Yu Wang, Chao Chen
Summary: Due to labor shortages, fruit harvesting has faced challenges, especially during the rapid spread of the pandemic. Robotic harvesting has been attempted, but current robots show limited performance due to the inefficiency of their grippers. This research proposes a method using a novel soft robotic gripper and detachment strategy for apple harvesting in natural orchards. The gripper includes soft fingers and a multi-mode suction cup, providing suction adhesion force and passive compliance. The proposed method achieves a detachment rate of 75.6%, damage rate of 4.55%, and harvesting rate of 70.77% in a natural orchard.
COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Haili Li, Pan Zhou, Shuai Zhang, Jiantao Yao, Yongsheng Zhao
Summary: This study proposes a universal method to significantly improve the load capacity of soft grippers by equipping them with bioinspired force booster fingers. The theoretical modeling and experiments demonstrate that the soft gripper can generate high load force, reaching up to 1960N, which is more than 17 times the existing level.
MECHANISM AND MACHINE THEORY
(2022)
Article
Agricultural Engineering
Asiwan Kultongkham, Supakit Kumnon, Tawan Thintawornkul, Teeranoot Chanthasopeephan
Summary: In smart farming, artificial intelligence and robotic systems are utilized to enhance efficiency in tasks like seeding, monitoring, and harvesting. A soft robotic three-fingered gripper, made of silicone rubber and designed using the finite element method, can handle spherical objects such as tomatoes or oranges. The gripper, actuated pneumatically with controlled force, can grasp tomatoes without exceeding the bio-yield force of 2.57 N.
JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Yuhang Liu, Kai Luo, Shuai Wang, Xiaodong Song, Zhijuan Zhang, Qiang Tian, Haiyan Hu
Summary: This article introduces a soft and bistable gripper that can quickly capture moving targets in space and has a buffering effect. The gripper uses structural instability to trigger rapid grasping without the need for additional energy input. Its design simplifies traditional driving devices and achieves lightweight and miniaturized gripping execution.
Article
Biophysics
Hui Zhu, Bo Wang, Wenkun Zhu, Tao Duan, Guiqiang He, Yanxia Wei, Dequn Sun, Jian Zhou
Summary: In this paper, a new adsorbent Catechin@ACF was successfully prepared, which showed specific recognition and capture characteristics for iodine. The aromatic rings, phenolic hydroxyl groups and imine groups in the catechin membrane were identified as key structures for iodine capture. The as-prepared adsorbent exhibited excellent capture capacity and is expected to play a vital role in spent fuel treatment.
COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Ryan Coulson, Christopher J. Stabile, Kevin T. Turner, Carmel Majidi
Summary: A novel stiffness and adhesion tuning gripper is developed using thermally induced phase change technology, showing significant increase in adhesion strength during pull-off tests. A finite element model is employed to simulate the behavior of the gripper, while pick-and-place demonstrations highlight its ability to delicately grasp objects of various shapes, sizes, and weights.
Article
Robotics
Amir Pagoli, Frederic Chapelle, Juan Antonio Corrales, Youcef Mezouar, Yuri Lapusta
Summary: This study introduces a new dexterous soft robotic gripper with reconfigurable fingers and palm for in-hand manipulation tasks, meeting all requirements without increasing mechanical complexity. By altering finger shape configurations and effective manipulation length, it offers a more accessible workspace compared to traditional grippers.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Yuze Ye, Peilin Cheng, Bo Yan, Yebo Lu, Chuanyu Wu
Summary: This study presents a four-finger soft gripper with two gripping sizes and four gripping modes, verifying the accuracy of the theoretical model through experiments. The soft gripper has the capability of variable gripping size, expanding the gripping size range and being able to stably grip objects of various sizes, shapes, and postures.
JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Yufei Hao, Zhongkui Wang, Yuzhao Zhou, Weitai Zhou, Tengfei Cai, Jianhua Zhang, Fuchun Sun
Summary: Traditional robotic grasping requires adjusting finger posture and force based on object characteristics. A soft enveloping gripper is introduced as a simpler and more efficient grasping method. The enveloping gripper can omnidirectionally envelop objects, allowing for 100% grasping success regardless of object position and orientation. In comparison, fingered grippers' success rate and orientation error are highly dependent on positioning and finger count. The enveloping gripper has lower vibration and decay time and can automatically grasp objects without posture estimation or force control, making it suitable for various applications.
ADVANCED INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Huixu Dong, Chao-Yu Chen, Chen Qiu, Chen-Hua Yeow, Haoyong Yu
Summary: This article proposes a novel soft robotic gripper with a snap-through bistable mechanism fabricated using ordered mold technology. The gripper achieves mechanical sensing and can perform pinching, enveloping, and caging grasps for objects with various profiles. Experimental results demonstrate that the gripper can manipulate a variety of soft and rigid objects and remains stable even when subject to external disturbances.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xin Huang, Jize Liu, Peng Zhou, Gehong Su, Tao Zhou, Xinxing Zhang, Chuhong Zhang
Summary: Inspired by the hierarchically oriented architecture of natural spider silk, highly efficient and mechanically durable photothermal materials have been developed using a ultrarobust liquid metals/polymer composite. This composite exhibits exceptional broad-band light absorption, excellent photothermal conversion ability, remarkable mechanical properties, and long-term structural reliability, making it ideal for solar harvesting applications.