Design of a compliant adjustable constant-force gripper based on circular beams

Compliant grippers have been widely used in engineering systems to achieve precision operations. In this paper, a compliant adjustable constant-force gripper based on circular beams is developed for realizing the compatible and stable constant-force operation. In the developed gripper, a stiffness-combination constant-force mechanism (SCCFM) is applied as its basis. A pseudo-rigid-body PPRR model and particle swarm optimization algorithm are utilized for circular-beam modeling and identification of the SCCFM, respectively. A devised preload mechanism realizes the adjustment of the initial preloading state of the SCCFM. A series of experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed SCCFM and the gripper.

Automated summary

In this paper, a compliant adjustable constant-force gripper based on circular beams is developed for achieving compatible and stable constant-force operation. The effectiveness of the developed gripper is demonstrated through a series of experiments, where a stiffness-combination constant-force mechanism and a devised preload mechanism are applied.