Soft fingertips with tactile sensing and active deformation for robust grasping of delicate objects
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
He, Liang
Lu, Qiejie
Abad, Sara-Adela
Rojas, Nicolas
Nanayakkara, Dehigaspe Patabendige Thrishantha
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Soft fingertips have shown significant adaptability for grasping a wide range of object shapes, thanks to elasticity. This ability can be enhanced to grasp soft, delicate objects by adding touch sensing. However, in these cases, the complete restraint and robustness of the grasps have proved to be challenging, as the exertion of additional forces on the fragile object can result in damage. This letter presents a novel soft fingertip design for delicate objects based on the concept of embedded air cavities, which allow the dual ability of tactile sensing and active shape-changing. The pressurized air cavities act as soft tactile sensors to control gripper position from internal pressure variation; and active fingertip deformation is achieved by applying positive pressure to these cavities, which then enable a delicate object to be kept securely in position, despite externally applied forces, by form closure. We demonstrate this improved grasping capability by comparing the displacement of grasped delicate objects exposed to high-speed motions. Results show that passive soft fingertips fail to restrain fragile objects at accelerations as low as 0.1 m/s 2 , in contrast, with the proposed fingertips delicate objects are completely secure even at accelerations of more than 5 m/s 2 .
Date Issued
2020-04-01
Date Acceptance
2020-01-30
Citation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020, 5 (2), pp.2714-2721
ISSN
2377-3766
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
2714
End Page
2721
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume
5
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2020 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/R020833/1
EP/R511547/1
EP/N03211X/2
EP/T00603X/1
Subjects
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-02-10