Gotta catch 'em all, safely! aerial-deployed soft underwater gripper
Author(s)
Romanello, Luca
Amir, Daniel Joseph
Stengel, Heinrich
Kovac, Mirko
Armanini, Sophie F
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Underwater soft grippers exhibit potential for applications such as monitoring, research, and object retrieval. However, existing underwater gripping techniques frequently cause disturbances to ecosystems. In response to this challenge, we present a novel underwater gripping framework comprising a lightweight gripper affixed to a custom submarine pod deployable via drone. This approach minimizes water disturbance and enables efficient navigation to target areas, enhancing overall mission effectiveness. The pod allows for underwater motion and is characterized by four degrees of freedom. It is provided with a custom buoyancy system, two water pumps for differential thrust and two for pitching. The system allows for buoyancy adjustments up to a depth of 6 meters, as well as motion in the plane. The 3-fingered gripper is manufactured out of silicone and was successfully tested on objects with different shapes and sizes, demonstrating a maximum pulling force of up to 8 N when underwater. The reliability of the submarine pod was tested in a water tank by tracking its attitude and energy consumption during grasping maneuvers. The system also accomplished a successful mission in a lake, where it was deployed on a hexacopter. Overall, the integration of this system expands the operational capabilities of underwater grasping, makes grasping missions more efficient and easy to automate, as well as causing less disturbance to the water ecosystem.
Date Issued
2024-05-13
Date Acceptance
2024-04-01
Citation
2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2024
Publisher
IEEE
Journal / Book Title
2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
Copyright Statement
© 2024, IEEE. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/robosoft60065.2024.10522045
Source
2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2024-04-14
Finish Date
2024-04-17
Coverage Spatial
San Diego, CA, USA