A soft cable loop based gripper for robotic automation of chemistry

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Automation
• Laboratory Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Background:

• Robotic automation is crucial for modern chemistry labs but faces adoption hurdles due to implementation complexities.
• Existing grippers often require significant clearance and complex control, limiting their applicability in constrained laboratory environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel adaptive gripper mechanism for chemistry automation.
• To address the technical challenges of implementing robotic systems in chemistry laboratories.
• To achieve reliable grasping of diverse objects with minimal spatial requirements.

Main Methods:

• Designed a novel adaptive gripper mechanism utilizing a compliant cable-driven system.
• The gripper employs a rigid finger to guide a cable that fully envelopes the target object.
• A prototype was constructed and tested for grasping cylindrical and prismatic objects in simulated chemistry automation tasks.

Main Results:

• The adaptive gripper demonstrated the ability to grasp cylindrical and prismatic objects of various sizes.
• The design requires minimal clearance for object envelopment and provides stable support post-grasp.
• The compliant nature of the mechanism resulted in minimal control effort for grasping tasks, achieving high reliability with minimal failures.

Conclusions:

• The novel adaptive gripper mechanism effectively overcomes key challenges in chemistry laboratory automation.
• Its design facilitates easy and reliable grasping of diverse objects, enhancing robotic system implementation.
• The gripper's performance indicates significant potential for advancing automated laboratory workflows.