Fanton I 2014

CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology

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Grasping devices and methods in automated production processes

Gualtiero Fantoni (2)a,*, Marco Santochi (1)a, Gino Dini (1)a, Kirsten Tracht b,
Bernd Scholz-Reiter (1)c, Juergen Fleischer (1)d, Terje Kristoffer Lien (1)e, Guenther Seliger (1)f,
Gunther Reinhart (1)g, Joerg Franke (2)h, Hans Nrgaard Hansen (1)i, Alexander Verl (2)l
a
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering (BIME), University of Bremen, Badgasteiner Strae 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany
c
Department of Planning and Control of Production Systems, BIBA, University of Bremen, Germany
d
wbk Institute of Production Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
e
Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
f
Department of Assembly Technology and Factory Management, Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management, Technical University Berlin, Germany
g
Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb), Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany
h
Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
i
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
l
Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units, Stuttgart, Germany
b
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords:
Assembly
Automation
Grippers
In automated production processes grasping devices and methods play a crucial role in the handling of
many parts, components and products. This keynote paper starts with a classication of grasping phases,
describes how different principles are adopted at different scales in different applications and continues
explaining different releasing strategies and principles. Then the paper classies the numerous sensors
used to monitor the effectiveness of grasping (part presence, exchanged force, stick-slip transitions, etc.).
Later the grasping and releasing problems in different elds (from mechanical assembly to disassembly,
from aerospace to food industry, from textile to logistics) are discussed. Finally, the most recent research
is reviewed in order to introduce the new trends in grasping. They provide an outlook on the future of both
grippers and robotic hands in automated production processes.
2014 CIRP.
1. Introduction
2. The grasping process
In the last ten years several factors such as the increasing cost of
human labour, the spread of automation and the decreasing cost of
robotic systems have pushed both industry and academia towards
the development of new grippers and robotic hands. While in the
past robot hands and industrial grippers were oriented to different
goals, nowadays it is often difcult to distinguish a simplied
robotic human-like hand from a complex industrial gripper. The
fast growth in the eld and the development of new grasping
technologies merits a review of grasping devices and methods in
production processes. In addition the world economic crisis is
pushing automation towards new frontiers asking for more
exible, versatile, lightweight, and small grippers able to perform
more functions (e.g. xtureless assembly [137]) than simple
grasping and holding during handling [149] (Fig. 1).
This work contributes to complete some interesting surveys
obtained in [113,139], and continues the CIRP focus on automatic
handling of parts at all scales in different industrial environments
[121,214].
The complexity of the grasping process is often underestimated

since it looks very familiar for human beings. However the
automation of this process creates many problems. In fact the
design of a gripper does not depend only on the object
characteristics but it is also affected by previous phases as feeding
and the following phases such as handling, positioning and
releasing. In general correctly fed parts require less versatile
grippers with respect to a bin picking situation where the gripper
has to face problems such as pieces with different orientation, part
tangling, etc. Similarly, handling needs such as high acceleration,
reorientation, high precision releasing generate constraints in the
gripper design or choice [60].
Neglecting the further requirements due to feeding and
handling, the grasping process can be generally described as
follows (Fig. 1):
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: g.fantoni@ing.unipi.it, g.fantoni@email.it (G. Fantoni).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2014.05.006
0007-8506/ 2014 CIRP.
Approaching the object: the gripper is positioned nearby the

object.
Coming into contact: the contact is achieved. In case of
contactless handling, the object is in the range of the force eld
generated by the gripper.
Increasing the force within certain limits.
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G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701
Fig. 1. Typical phases of the grasping process [57].

Figure reproduced with permission of SAGE Publications Ltd.
Securing the object: the force stops increasing when the desired
degrees of freedom of the object are removed and the object
stops moving independently from the gripper.
Moving the object. In such conditions the gripper and the object
are joined and the object can be moved. Sometimes the process
can be carried out by the gripper itself.
Releasing the object. Usually at the macroscale it is caused by
gravity when the grasping force is deactivated. At the microscale
the problem is more complex since surface forces overcome
gravity, therefore other releasing strategies are needed.
Monitoring the grasping: force and torque sensors, stick slip
sensors, contact sensors, etc. can be used to detect and monitor all
the process and particularly the effectiveness of grasping.
2.1. The grasping principles
The design of an industrial gripper must ensure a secure, robust
and reliable grasping.
Several grasping principles (Fig. 2) have been proposed in the
last decades, some of them mimicking the human ngers or
animals claws or jaws, or exploiting different physical effects.
Some principles can be applied only at the microscale (e.g. acoustic
levitation or laser tweezers), while others proposed for microhandling are now expanding beyond that eld (e.g. van der Waals
forces).
Fig. 2. Grasping principles.

Adapted from [202] (Figure a reproduced with permission of IFIP).
The grasping principle can be dened as the physical principle

which causes the force effect necessary to get and maintain the
part in a relative position with respect to the gripping device
[203]. Mechanical grippers are the most widespread: they are
based on friction or on form closure, but also intrusive grippers
belong to that class. Suction based grippers and magnetic grippers
dominate the automotive eld and in particular metal sheet
handling [139]. Bernoulli grippers work on the basis of airow
between the gripper and the part that causes a force which brings
the gripper and part close together. This is now receiving more
attention since it acts as a vacuum system, but without coming into
contact with the handled part. Other principles are less used in the
macro domain, but in the last ten years they have led to interesting
applications in micro-handling so that now research teams are
trying to exploit them to grasp standard objects.
Electrostatic grippers are based on charge difference (sometimes induced by the gripper itself) between the gripper and the
part [18], while van der Waals grippers are based on the low force
(electrostatic forces) due to the atomic attraction between the
molecules of the gripper and those of the object [214].
While capillary grippers use the surface tension of a liquid
meniscus between the gripper and the part [122], cryogenic
grippers freeze a small amount of liquid and the resulting ice
produces the required force [78]. Other grippers are even more
complex: for example the ultrasonic based grippers generate
standing pressure waves used to lift up a part [167], while laser
sources can produce an optical pressure able to trap and move
microparts in a liquid medium (optical tweezers [214]).
In friction or jaw grippers (Fig. 3) grasping is based on the
generation of a normal force between the gripper and the object.
Fig. 3. Mechanical grippers: (a) two ngers; (b) piezoelectrically actuated

microgripper [25].
Fig. 3a reproduced with permission of Schunk.
Such a force generates a corresponding static friction force when

the object is lifted. In general the ngertips have a shape which
replicates the object section or prole and can provide a selfcentring/aligning capability or, in some other cases, can slightly
adapt to different objects through pins or soft or rubber surfaces on
the ngers. Sometimes even theoretically it is not trivial to
distinguish a force gripper (friction) from a form gripper (jaw). Jaw
grippers can have also more than two ngers: three-nger grippers
are used in industrial applications as for example for grasping and
aligning cylindrical parts while for example six-nger grippers are
used for assembling rubber o-rings.
The most common jaw or friction grippers have at least one
movable and one xed nger, but more often they have two
collaborating ngers [139,203].
For some of the grasping principles, a variety of actuation
principles can be used. In the case of jaw or friction grippers their
actuation can be electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, and thermal (e.g. in
the case of Shape Memory Alloys) or piezoelectric in the case of
microgrippers.
Since the working principle is based on the application of a force
over an object, the deformation induced by the force can imprint
high value leather plies or textile, can damage delicate food or wear
sensitive parts as silicon wafers, lenses, etc. Therefore an accurate
control of the force is necessary or another grasping principle
might be more suitable.
2.2. The releasing principles
In general the releasing phase is achieved through gravity when
the grasping principle is deactivated (Fig. 4h). However in some
cases gravity is not sufcient. When residual grasping forces
remain after the grasping deactivation e.g. in case of ice or glue
grasping at the macro scale and of surface forces at the microscale,
both passive and active releasing strategies are necessary to allow
a reliable and controlled releasing [59].
As shown in Fig. 4 releasing strategies can be divided into two
groups: passive strategies, obtained by reducing surface forces, and
active strategies, where an additional force allows the gripper to
release the object.
Passive releasing strategies can act at the gripper level or at the
environment level. Grippers can be (a) made of or coated with
conductive materials or can be grounded to prevent electric charge
storage or (b) made of the same material as the object to reduce
contact interaction forces. Moreover their surface can be coated
with (c) hydrophobic coating to prevent the adsorption of moisture.
Grippers made of (e) hard materials, spherical ngers (g), and
ngertips with (f) high surface roughness reduce the contact area
(and moreover sharp edges induce the self-discharge effect), while
(d) low Hamaker constant coatings reduce van der Waals forces
[6]. Changes at environmental level have also been adopted: (i) a
Fig. 4. Releasing strategies.

Figure adapted from [59] and reproduced with permission of IFIP.
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dry atmosphere decreases surface tension effects (but increases

the risk of triboelectrication and the generation of electrostatic
force), (k) assembly in uid eliminates surface tension effects and
reduces electrostatic force, (j) vacuum or oxygen free atmosphere
reduces the formation of native oxides which increase adhesion, (l)
ionized air neutralizes free charges on the surfaces reduces
electrostatic forces [6,62].
Conversely, active strategies use an additional force to release
the grasped object. Examples are the use of: (m) air pressure
generated by compressed air or by heating a series of channels in
the end effector, (n) inertial forces such as acceleration or vibration
of the gripper support, (o) micro heating to reduce the moistureliquid forces or to melt the ice in cryogenic grippers, (p)
electrostatic force control by shorting out the gripper or tuning
the electrostatic force until inverting the polarity.
Forces can be varied also by creating differences in adhesion (r,
s) with the substrate, (v) by using an additional tool (with low
adhesiveness or little contact area), (r) by using liquid with
different surface tension or (t) even glueing the part in its nal
position [161].
The object can be released through its mechanical engagement
on the substrate as in the case of (s) snaps or when parts are pushed
or scraped against an edge or by decreasing the contact area by:
varying the gripper curvature from a at shape to a curved one, (u)
tilting or rolling the gripper or moving the gripper parallel with
respect to the substrate.
Changes at the ngertip level have also been tested: in
mechanical grippers (w) a roughness change reduces adhesion
forces, while in capillary grippers the modication of the liquid
drop by an (x) electrostatic eld, a chemical connement or by
changing the radius of curvature of the tooltip which reduces the
contact area.
Two examples at the macroscale where grasping and/or
releasing are critical are both related to the magnetic principle.
The rst one is the problem of de-stacking steel sheets from a pile
with a magnetic gripper since the magnetic eld propagates
through ferromagnetic materials. A patented magnetic array tool
[119] uses multiple permanent magnets with different magnetic
elds to create a very shallow depth of eld to destack sheets up to
0.7 mm. The other one is the case of manufacturing of permanent
magnet excited electric motors where strong magnetic forces
appear during assembling. This problem has found a solution
thanks to a gripper provided with an electromagnet able to
counterbalance and cancel the eld generated by the permanent
magnets [110,211].
2.3. The monitoring methods
The presence of the object and its correct grasping are generally
monitored through sensors. These sensors may be integrated into
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the gripper or might be mounted on an external xture. Different

kinds of sensing principles for the three main parameters (presence,
force/torque and position/orientation) have been proposed. Fig. 5
shows an overview and classication of sensor principles.
Fig. 5. Sensing principles: (a)

photoelectric sensor; (d) vision
force/torque sensor; (h) vision
photodiode (often IR); (k) vision
Mechanical switch; (b) electrical sensor; (c)

based; (e) tactile sensor; (f) strain gauges; (g)
based; (i) capacitive or electrostatic; (j) ledbased monitoring.
2.3.1. Presence detection

Conventional measuring principles follow the idea that the
presence of a grasping object activates a physical mechanism,
which results in a Boolean electrical signal. These principles can be
classied into contacting and non-contacting principles. Sensors of
the rst category require a direct contact between the object to be
grasped and the sensor. A very basic method is a mechanical
switch, which is pushed by the object during grasping (Fig. 5a).
Electrical sensors that are based on the conductivity of the grasping
object require two independent direct contact points to detect the
object presence (Fig. 5b). In such a case measuring systems have to
be integrated in the gripper nger. Since contactless sensors work
with small distances between the object and the sensor surface,
they need not to be placed at the gripper ngers. This allows the
usage of bigger components that can be added as auxiliary
systems. For example, Hall sensors, proximity switches or
photoelectric sensors (Fig. 5c) are cheap, reliable and easily
mounted on the gripper. Due to these facts they can often be found
in industrial applications.
Fig. 6 shows a commercial example of integrated contactless
sensor. Another method of contactless presence detection is the
Fig. 6. Contactless presence sensors: (1) at-pack inductive proximity sensor [9].
Figure reproduced with permission of Balluff.
usage of vision based sensors. The tip of the gripper is monitored by

a camera and an image processing algorithm searches for known
objects (Fig. 5d). Beside presence detection, these systems can
easily distinguish different types of objects (shape, colour, size,
etc.) and can therefore help to decide whether the observed object
is of the desired type or not.
Recently, a novel technology for contact sensing has been
developed [195]: a small vibration is provided to the ngers and
monitored at palm level. When the nger touches an object the
measured vibration diminishes and consequently the contact is
perceived.
2.3.2. Force/torque sensing
Force/torque sensors provide information about the performance of the grasping process and can be used for a closed loop
control of the handling device so enhancing its capabilities. One of
the most common functionalities is the grasping of pressure
sensitive objects. Furthermore, these sensors can be used to derive
information about the presence, size or type of the object. They are
also needed for force controlled corrections of the grasping
position or for force adaptive trajectory generation [209]. Since the
nger tip of a force controlled gripper may be less object specic,
these grippers help to overcome difculties arising from object
variety.
The sensors can be classied by their physical measuring
technique and by their mounting position on the gripper. Fig. 5
illustrates three different levels at which the sensor could be
positioned. Sensors at wrist level are combined force/torque
sensors with multiple degrees of freedom. They are mounted
between the last link of the robot and the gripper (Fig. 5g). If a force
acts on the gripper, the wrist is deected. This deection can be
measured through different physical principles typical sensors
use metal or silicon strain gauges. In [49] a force/torque wrist
sensor is used to decrease the assembly uncertainty along the zaxis of a precision assembly robot (Fig. 7).
Another example of a wrist sensor can be found in [89]. The
commercial force torque compliance sensor (Fig. 8a) uses an
optoelectronic positioning measuring system. Spring elements
Fig. 7. Microgripper with a force sensor attached to the wrist [49].

Figure reproduced with permission of IWF, TU Braunschweig.
Fig. 8. (a) Force torque compliance sensor [102]; (b) force measuring system with
one active module (encircled) and one passive module [89].
Figures reproduced with permission of Schunk.
connect two stacked plates which carry six diodes and six
phototransistors, respectively. If an external force acts on the
system, the displacement of the plates is measured by the
phototransistors and, knowing the rigidity of the springs, the
acting force is calculated within an error around 5%.
Wrist sensors are very useful for monitoring forces outside the
grippers system boundary like gravity, acceleration, mating or
contact forces: however they cannot detect forces inside the
gripper. Therefore sensors at nger level are necessary. Usually,
strain gauges are adopted to measure the deection of the ngers
while an object is clamped (Fig. 5f). Commercially available
systems are delivered as auxiliary modules that have to be
mounted between the actuator and the gripper nger [89]. If only
grasping forces have to be measured just one nger can be
sensorized while the other ngers can remain passive and are used
for surface coupling (Fig. 8b).
The usage of more than one sensor or multiple-axis sensors
allows the implementation of advanced monitoring methods. A
gripper nger design, where six sensors are structurally integrated
into both ngers of a gripper is described in [209]. H-shaped cutouts weaken the structure at designated areas to allow strain gauge
based deection measuring along six axes. Fig. 9 shows that each
nger has three sensorsone for every basic spatial direction (x, y
and z). The proposed design allows the measurement of system
inherent forces as well as external forces [210]. Thus it eliminates
the need for an additional wrist sensor. Furthermore a sensor
network with self-learning capabilities allows to connect the
individual sensor nodes within the gripper [21].
683
Fig. 11. (a) Monolitic microgripper with integrated silicon force sensor [44]; (b)
microgripper with integrated force sensors [26].
Figure reproduced with permission of (a) Elsevier1; (b) imt, TU Braunschweig.
layers are routed over the lm hinges of the gripper. Therefore they
are deected during the gripper closure which results in a
resistance change of the measuring line.
The design, fabrication and characterization of microforce
sensors attached to the tip of microgrippers is described in [44] and
shown in Fig. 11a. The sensors consist of silicon cantilever beams
and piezoresistive force elements located at their supports.
Depending on the task and object to be grasped, the cantilever,
which acts as one jaw of the gripper, can be changed as well as the
complementary passive jaw (Fig. 11a). A certain degree of
exibility is obtained through a tool changer as described in [35].
While sensors at wrist, nger or ngertip level are directly
involved in the force transmission, vision based sensors are placed
outside the kinematic chain. They observe the contour/shape of the
gripper nger and calculate the displacement of designated spots.
Vision-based force measurement can be used to determine the
grasping force of a microgripper. In [86] a resolution of 3 mN was
achieved. In the gripper described in [61] the small deformations of
the ngertips are mechanically amplied to better measure the forces
in an indirect way through a camera and image processing techniques
(Fig. 12). Alternatively small deformations at gripper level can be
optically amplied and measured through a laser and a triangulation
system [172].
Fig. 9. Gripper with two sensorized ngers [210].

Figure reproduced with permission of bime, University of Bremen.
Although the cost of such solutions is mostly very high some

commercial examples exist. Fig. 10 shows a commercial gripper
equipped with tactile sensors.
Fig. 12. Mechanically amplied micro gripper [61].
Fig. 10. SDH servo-electric 3-Finger Gripping Hand during grasping (ad) and detail
of the capacitive sensor mounted on the gripper (e) [102].
Figure reproduced with permission of Schunk.
Another example of an integrated force sensor can be found in

[26]. The author describes piezo-resistive elements integrated in
the ngers of a silicon microgripper. To amplify the strain, a double
beam structure is cut in every nger (Fig. 11b). The sputtered gold
2.3.3. Measuring of position or orientation

The assembly accuracy can signicantly be enhanced by
monitoring the position and orientation of the object to be
grasped. Especially in micro assembly the exact positioning and
orienting of objects on a tray or within a feeder system is a very
complex task. Alternatively the position and orientation is
measured both before the object is grasped and, after grasping,
immediately before the object is assembled. A 3D vision sensor and
a microgripper for assembly tasks with relative positioning
accuracies below 1 mm is described in [28] and shown in Fig. 7.
A beam splitter is used to project a two-sided view of the
gripper tip onto a single camera chip.
3. Application of grasping devices in automated production
processes
Grippers have to work with a wide range of parts with very
different characteristics which change tremendously in different
684
production processes. They have to meet different requirements

because parts differ in (i) size (large in aerospace industry and very
small in electronic industry), (ii) exibility and deformability (both
in metal sheet handling and in textile industry), (iii) sensitiveness
to scratches and pressure (in silicon wafers and solar cells handling
or in food industry), (iv) sensitiveness to static charges and
humidity (in electronic industry).
Sometimes the design of a gripper is also affected by the
environment which varies from standard industrial shop-oors to
clean rooms, from submarine to explosive. Moreover grippers have
to deal with objects in different conditions: from frozen sh to soft
gels in the food industry, from delicate microlenses in microassembly to end-of-life goods (e.g. deformed, crushed, rusty
household appliances) to be disassembled. They have to perform
single operations such as grasping or have to be used such as in
packaging where they contribute to grasp, bend, glue [20]. Part
size, weight, physical or process properties affecting the grasp
reliability can be mapped with reference to different automated
production processes as in Fig. 13.
Fig. 14. Grasping principles vs. applications.
3.1. Standard mechanical assembly

Mechanical assembly has been the rst eld where grippers
have been adopted to automate repetitive tasks. Nowadays, in
industrial automated environment a large amount of parts are
delivered to the assembly station in an already pre-assembled
state (e.g. a piston with piston rings) and correctly fed.
The mechanical jaw grippers, electromagnets and vacuum cups
play the main role owing to their proven reliability and low cost.
Challenges arise in the automotive assembly owing to three new
trends: (i) the growth of electric motors (used in the hybrid cars)
that implies handling and assembly of stators-rotors, battery and
cables just to name a few, (ii) the widespread miniaturization of
product parts, (iii) robotics also pushes the borders of automation
further and products, manually assembled in the past, will be
automated by robots in the near future.
Thanks to its high production volume the automotive eld can
be the forerunner for the adoption of some new grasping solutions
(e.g. grippers based on van der Waals forces).
Fig. 13. Automated production processes vs. parts characteristics, properties and
assembly difculties.
Other factors such as the feeding conditions (e.g. stacked vs.

single steel sheet) or the handling and positioning requirements
(e.g. acceleration) and also the environment of the production
process (e.g. submarine, vacuum, or explosive atmospheres) make
the mapping shown in Fig. 13 even more complex. Owing to the
infrequency of such conditions Fig. 13 has been kept at the
minimum level of complexity.
Different production processes (or industrial elds) present
different issues to be solved by properly designed grippers. A
synthetic overview of the most used grasping principles for each
production process is presented in Fig. 14 showing how different
grasping principles are adopted in industry or proposed by
academia. In the following paragraphs the gripping problems
and possible solutions are described for the main industrial
applications.
3.1.1. Assembly in aerospace industry

Due to outstanding material properties the use of carbon bre is
expected to grow rapidly within the next years. Thus, contemporary efforts in this eld of research focus on novel automation
technologies for handling, processing, assembly and quality
assurance in order to achieve a broad industrialization of
composite manufacturing. Today manufacturing process is
characterized by manual and complex process steps, small batch
size, a high number of variants and difcult material properties.
These demanding challenges for automation have been the subject
of several research activities during the last years. The recent
developments are focused on replacement or assistance of manual
steps and increasing the reliability of the process chain.
Major limitations for an automated handling consist in the
exible, anisotropic and air-permeable material properties and the
complex contours of the textiles. Hence novel gripping systems
must be highly exible and must not damage the textile structure.
One example is a low vacuum suction device for an automated
clearing of debris from an industrial cutter table (Fig. 15).
Flexible adaptation to different contours is possible due to
selective activation of every single suction hole [5,169,170]. The
subsequent process step is the draping of the textiles onto a 3D
mould. The end-effector introduced in [4,163,170] is able to cope
with several C-shape and L-shape proles and quasi-at surfaces
by unrolling the gripped textile in a multistage preforming process.
In order to drape Z-shape proles and concave angles the geometry
of the end-effector is modied to a triangle with congurable
draping units at the edges (Fig. 16).
The nished preform build-up has to be separated from the
mould. To replace the manual process step mechanical ejectors or
overpressure can be used. Another possibility is the use of a sliced
mould, whose slices can be moved individually in vertical direction
in order to separate the preform from the mould [165]. Not all
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Fig. 15. Vacuum gripper for contour-variant parts: cut parts (black)and the gripper
(white).
Fig. 17. Grippers used in the disassembly cell.
Figure adapted with permission of Emerald Group Publishing.
Fig. 16. Flexible preforming end-effector for Z-shape proles (a), draping result at
concave and convex geometries (b).
processes can be fully automated. Especially for the assembly and

handling of large scaled, compliant or sensitive parts man machine
cooperation and collaboration can be helpful to combine human
exibility with robot precision and quality [164].
3.1.2. Disassembly
Waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is
currently considered one of the fastest growing waste streams
growing at 35% per year in Europe. WEEE contains diverse
substances that pose considerable environmental and health risks
if treated inadequately. On the other hand the recycling of WEEE
offers substantial opportunities in terms of making secondary raw
materials available on the market [96]. For their treatment, namely
the separation of various materials, disassembly is recognized as
the most effective approach although the development of new
dedicated tools and grippers is necessary [186]. However the wide
range of WEEE, the great variety of joints within these products as
well as unpredictable damage to components and joints due to
time and usage require exible disassembly tools and grippers
[13].
Research is trying to develop fast, adaptable and recongurable
systems for manual disassembly and modular and exible tools for
automated solutions. Both of them share some characteristics. In
fact, disassembly processes can be classied in (i) non-destructive,
(ii) partly-destructive, destroying joining elements, and (iii)
destructive, partly destroying also assembled parts [65].
While non-destructive disassembly needs interfaces and
joining elements to be in good conditions, both the other
destructive disassembly processes can act also on products in
bad condition as WEEE usually are. Destructive disassembly can be
performed by few exible grippers and tools able to create the
grasping surface where they can exert forces (acting surfaces). In
order to meet high exibility demands for the disassembly
processes, tools should be applicable to a wide range of geometries
[189].
The approach of generating new acting surfaces for transmitting forces and torques has been implemented in several
prototypical disassembly tools (Fig. 17). The prototype of this
tool generates the new acting surfaces by using a pneumatically
driven internal impact mass. Afterwards, the screw is unscrewed
by a pneumatic drive. Conventional bits are inserted in the highspeed clamping system instead of the sharp-edged end-effectors. It
has also a special centring device to easily locate the end-effector
on the screw head. The device is partly size and geometry
independent therefore it can handle different screws, rivets, etc.
[187].
Actually the development of modules and standardized endeffectors that can be easily and quickly recongured is necessary
for disassembling a wide range of WEEE. By recombining the
modules, costs for resources can be decreased and a higher
exibility of the tools is achieved. Disassembly cells have been
built to test the tools and increase the productivity of a
disassembly plant. A wide product spectrum from household
equipment to electric motors can be disassembled within the cells
with minor set-up changes [212].
The system described in [188] for the disassembly of washing
machines consists of three co-operating robots (Fig. 17). Together
with some disassembly tools some special grippers are here used
as follows. A scissor gripper can cut cables and tires capturing the
cut-off parts for later disposal. A screwnail gripper for plastic parts
consists of a rotary drive with a screwnail endeffector and linear
moveable needles to x the object in position while generating the
surfaces for handling or loosening the object. A screwnail gripper
for heavy tumble systems consists of two gripper modules with
robust and powerful pneumatic drives which drive two screwnail
endeffectors.
Similarly a 3 d.o.f. (degrees of freedom) manipulator equipped
with a gripper can grasp discarded washing machines by acting on
the internal surfaces of the rotating drum[179]. It consists of a
hydraulic actuator able to move three expanding radial arms; these
arms act on the internal surface of the drum deforming it and
realizing a stable connection with the gripper (Fig. 18). This feature
makes ve external faces of the appliance entirely free, thus
obtaining an optimal accessibility for the worker to the parts to be
disassembled (motor, electronic boards, etc.) and allowing a stable
and reliable grasping.
3.1.3. Handling of non-rigid parts in textile and leather industry
Handling non-rigid parts is a very important issue in textile and
leather industries, but also in other sectors such as food processing,
aerospace industry, biomedical materials, etc. Dening the concept
of non-rigid part (or exible part) is not easy. Taking into account
the problems occurring in handling, a part can be considered
exible or non-rigid if, under the action of forces usually
686
Fig. 18. (a) 3 degrees of freedom manipulator with an expanding gripper (b).
Movements of the gripper during insertion (c1), rotation of the three arms (c2) and
their radial expansion (c34).
exerted during manipulation (i.e., weight, inertia forces, grasping

forces), its deformation is greater than at least one of its
dimensions According to this denition, a metal sheet is a nonrigid part since its weight can deform the part at the corners of a
quantity greater than its thickness if it is grasped in the centre of
the upper area.
Therefore, the most evident behaviour of a non-rigid part
during handling is the change of shape which creates several
difculties. Other problems derive from their surface characteristics (porosity or delicateness) that, in some cases, demand
specic solutions. These aspects were deeply investigated one
decade ago in [190].
These problems depend both on the shape of the object and on
the material.
Some examples of non-rigid shapes and materials typically
handled in industry are: 2D shapes (at) as fabrics, leather plies,
paper sheets, metal sheets, etc. and 3D shapes as plastic parts,
rubber parts, food, bags of liquid or granular material.
Force closure, form closure and material bond are basic
principles that can be applied to grasp workpieces. Force closure
connections are realized by friction created by springs, magnets,
suction cups, or other principles. Force closure grippers ensure
sufcient holding forces but might damage the surface. Suction
grippers are restricted to airtight materials [199]. Examples of
grippers based on form t are needle gripper and carden grippers
[185]. Needle grippers puncture the workpiece and can be adapted
to different material properties. Carden grippers consists of a
exible strip covered with a multitude of thin needles that intrude
the rst layer of the object. Both grippers damage the surface of the
material and are therefore limited to non critical operations [190].
The problems occurring in handling of non-rigid parts are
peculiar and different for each step of the process (Fig. 19):
Problems in grasping. When exerting the grasping force the
object signicantly changes its shape, producing unexpected
behaviour in its position with respect to the gripper (Fig. 19a). In
addition, in de-stacking operations (ply separation), non-rigid
parts such as textiles or leather plies are stacked a ply over the
other: the problem is to correctly grasp only one ply without
involving the others (Fig. 19b).
Problems in moving. During the robot movement, inertia forces
can change the shape of the object causing different troubles
such as unexpected releasing of the object (Fig. 19c) or collisions
with obstacles along the programmed trajectories (Fig. 19d).
Problems in releasing. Releasing could be very difcult since the
part can assume unexpected positions that prevent a correct
placement; for instance, a corner of a leather ply could fold
during releasing, not allowing a correct spreading of the ply on a
surface (Fig. 19e); the deformation of a rubber tube during
grasping could interfere with the assembly operation at the end
of the trajectory (Fig. 19f).
Fig. 19. Problems in handling non-rigid parts.
A non-rigid object can be grasped in different ways according to

its shape and material. In order to avoid or minimize the problems
listed in Fig. 19, the generally used grasping principles can be
classied as: mechanical grasping, ingressive grasping, adhesion
grasping (divided in electromagnetic, electrostatic, suction, air jet
and cryogenic grasping). Fig. 20 summarizes the capability of each
principle in grasping different non-rigid parts.
Figure 20. Grasping principles of non-rigid parts (XXX: very good; XX: good; X:
fair).
Mechanical grasping is based on the use of ngers. It often

causes the deformation of the object due to the forces exerted by
the ngers during closure. This effect can be minimized by a proper
selection of the surfaces to grasp.
In grasping 2D objects, two different approaches are possible:

Grasping in the central part of the upper surface. This approach is
easy to perform but obviously produces an evident deformation
of the part, introducing difculties in ply separation or in
releasing on a at surface.
Grasping from the edges. It often requests special ngers, like
those ones shown in Fig. 21a and also in this case ply separation
could be very difcult [53]. The advantage of this method
consists in moving the part maintaining a vertical position: the
part falls down due to gravity, without unexpected deformation
of the part, obtaining an easy releasing on a at surface.
687
conductive and insulating materials, but their performance

decreases in presence of water and dust.
In vacuum grippers problems as the delicateness and the
porosity of the grasped surface (e.g. leather or food) are addressed
by modifying both the material of the cup and the texture of its
contact surface. As reported in [53] the material and the cup
geometry allow the high mating level with the leather surface,
while the small channels of the texture over the contact area
reduce and hide the imprints generated in the contact by the
vacuum (Fig. 22).
Fig. 22. The deformable vacuum cup for leather ply grasping: (a) front view; (b)
lateral view during a stripping force test.
Fig. 21. (a) Grasping fabric from the edges [112]; (b) vacuum gripper grasping a
CFRP fabric; (c) Needle gripper grasping a non-rigid object; (d) Electrostatic gripper.
Figures reproduced with permission of (a) Elsevier; (b, c) Schmalz; (d) IPT
Fraunhofer.
Ingressive grasping is divided in non-intrusive methods (Velcro

systems) and intrusive mechanisms (needles Fig. 21c). The
prehension principle is based on the partial penetration (e.g. of
needles) on the upper surface of the object, therefore it is
exclusively used in grasping fabrics or foods. By controlling the
depth of penetration the gripper is able to correctly separate
objects from a stack.
A typical needle gripper for textiles is represented in Fig. 21c.
The coordinated extension of four needles is commanded by two
pneumatic cylinders. The holding force in needle grippers depends
on the penetration angle and number of needles as well as on the
on the elasticity of the workpiece. As the elasticity is often small,
the maximum grasping forces are limited. The same behaviour can
be observed in carden or velcro grippers. They are made of stapleholes or hook-loop pairs, respectively. The holding force can only
be enhanced by increasing the number of pairs in contact. An upper
limit of the force exists owing to geometric constraints to staple/
hook size.
Adhesion grasping is based on different principles such as
suction cups (vacuum grippers), electromagnetic or electrostatic,
air jet or cryogenic grippers.
Handling workpieces with low porosity is a comparatively easy
task for vacuum grippers. On the other hand, porous or permeable
surfaces, such as textiles made of carbon bre (CFRP) or composites
such as Kevlar or woven fabrics, present a challenge. Producers
have therefore designed special vacuum systems with ejectors able
to generate high volume ow, ensuring reliable handling for not
only composite textiles, but also for non-rigid, unstable components, extremely thin and delicate foils or even thin circuit boards
(Fig. 21b).
A highly exible electrostatic gripper (Fig. 21d) is capable of
lifting semi-nished textile products made of carbon bres and
other materials and putting them down again with pin-point
accuracy without any damage. Electrostatic phenomena are the
key aspects of this solution and they can be applied to both
The holding forces of suction grippers can easily be increased by

enhancing the vacuum in case of workpieces with low air
permeability.
An alternative solution for grasping a non-rigid object by
adhesion is based on the use of the cryogenic principle (cryogripper illustrated in Fig. 23a [196]).
Fig. 23. (a) Cryogenic gripper [196]; (b) coanda effect gripper handling textile [131].
Figure a reproduced with permission of Elsevier.
A cryogenic gripper using Peltier elements is described in

[88,191]. Recent experiments have led to the hydro adhesive
gripper [196]. The principle exploits the liquid solid transition and
the criogripper freezes water as active means for material bond.
For attaching a non-rigid part, hydro adhesive grippers spray a
little amount of water on the part surface. The gripper is equipped
with a Peltier element that freezes the water and causes the
adhesion. Releasing of the gripped objects can be accomplished by
reversing the current of the Peltier element or by air pressure
[132].
A further adhesion gripping principle is based on a novel
Coanda effect ejector (Fig. 23b). This ejector allows the construction of a slim, plate-shaped vacuum gripper with multiple
independent suction heads. Each suction head is powered by a
recently patented lateral Coanda ejector that ensures gripping
power on all non-rigid parts even in case of porous ones [131].
Bernoulli grippers have also been tested with deformable objects
and have demonstrated interesting results such as in the case of
leather plies [40].
Advanced textiles as Kevlar, Twaron, glass and carbon bres
have been nding applications in many advanced products [72].
Their high cost is mainly due to picking, draping and assembling
textiles in a mould. New grippers have been suggested for
automating the process which today is still manual.
688
Fig. 25. (a) Jaw gripper for hot parts; (b) ball-and-taper gripper.
Figures reproduced with permission of (a) Schunk, (b) First Subsea Ltd.
Fig. 24. (a) Drape gripper draping a cap-prole out of 2-dimensionally textile seminished products. (b) sensor based coanda gripper.
Preforming is a critical step in the manufacture of continuous

bre reinforced polymers. The transformation of a 2D textile into a
near-net-shape 3D bre part represents a huge challenge for
automation. Currently, preform production is mainly manual, but
several research approaches exist for automating this process step.
The research project described in [70] investigates preform
technologies, which are suitable for mass production. One
development is shown in Fig. 24. The so called drape gripper
is able to pick up a 2D textile semi-nished product and drop it in a
3D shape, like a cap-prole. By means of this system it has been
shown that the draping of decoilable forms can be carried out
through a handling system. In the future, the results should be
transferred to more complex geometries [70].
Another solution in the eld of automated handling of seminished textiles made of carbon bre is a low pressure Coanda
gripper, shown in Fig. 24b. It represents a suitable solution with a
high automation level. The grasping force is exerted through a
series of holes located on a at cylindrical surface where two
annular electrodes are used to measure the grasping force [73]. The
contact resistance measured between the two electrodes and the
semi-nished textile depends on the grasping force. Actually the
higher the force the lower the contact resistance measured
between the two electrodes. A control unit and a regulating valve
maintain the gripping force at a low but reliable value. Thus air
consumption can be reduced to a minimum while still guaranteeing a reliable grasping.
3.1.4. Handling of hazardous parts
Hazardous environments sometimes complicate also the design
of the gripper. Standard mechanical jaw grippers are usually used
to handle parts produced from processes like sand-casting, metal
forming or plastic moulding both when the part is at high
temperature right after being casted or formed (Fig. 25a) and right
before product assembly when this part is cooled to room
temperature. Special solutions are adopted: grippers need to be
completely sealed from the die casting environment, ngers are in
stainless steel, air cooling systems prevent the gripper itself from
overheating [100]. However mechanical jaw grippers have several
limitations in handling such parts: the variability of the object
shapes due to ashes and burrs can prevent stable grasping, the
gripper cannot completely enclose the part, sharp edges can
damage the gripper itself [219], parts are often too heavy to be
handled safely by both commercial and specic grippers [28].
Some grippers for explosive atmospheres (gas/air, dust/air) are

described in [100]. All the possible sources of ignition from the
system, i.e. electric, electrostatic and friction have been removed.
Among the technical solutions (e.g. insulation of electric parts)
anti-static and non-sparking coating are applied to all the
mechanical components of the gripper.
A different approach developed for handling big submarine
pipes is the ball-and-taper gripper [50] (Fig. 25b). It is a cylindrical
gripper acting on the inner surface of a pipe. It consists of a
connector with a series of balls held securely in tapers that are
machined into the connector surface. The balls expand radially
when the tapers move axially. The gripper is inserted into a close
tting tube, the connector pushes the balls out of the tapers, thus
increasing the diameter of the connector and providing a powerful
multi-point grasp.
3.2. Electronic assembly
In electronic industry almost all the objects to be grasped are
at, the environment is clean (usually assembly takes place in
clean rooms) and the production rate is very high. Moreover the
component spectrum has a wide range with the component size
from a few tens of microns in case of SMDs (surface mounted
devices) to 200 mm in case of silicon wafers or solar cells. In
general parts are mechanically strong but fragile and their surface
is very sensitive, even to contact.
In electronic assembly pick and place machines are used for
assembling electronic components (like resistors, capacitors,
inductors, IC, diodes, etc.) in surface mount technology (SMT) on
printed circuit boards (PCB). These machines are able to place
electronic components with an immense speed of up to 150,000
parts per hour. Electronic components e.g. 01005 ceramic chips
with a size of 0.4 mm by 0.2 mm or ip-chips with bump sizes from
60 mm to 30 mm (pitch 100 mm [64,75,183]) can be placed with an
accuracy of down to several micrometres.
The placement head of a typical pick and place machine collects
the components from the feeders and places the components at the
exact position and orientation on the PCB. The accuracy in placing
components is guaranteed by an integrated vision system. The
camera optically measures the position in x and y direction and
orientation of each component before placing on the PCB (Fig. 26).
Fig. 26. Pick and place machine with placement head on portal system.
Figure reproduced with permission of ASM AS.
A second camera registers ducial marks on the PCB to measure

the position of the PCB in the machine. The components are
grasped within a couple of milliseconds by vacuum nozzles. The
collect and place head grasps up to 20 components from the
component feeders and places them sequentially on the PCB. Up to
37,500 components per hour at an accuracy of 40 mm (3s) can be
realized by one placement head in this mode. The head with the
highest placement accuracy of up to 10 mm (3s) is the pick and
place head, that picks one component from the feeder and places it
onto the PCB. However, the placement performance is reduced to
6000 components per hour.
The exibility in placing a wide range of component shapes is
obtained by automatically changing the nozzles for each job.
Additional sensors can be integrated in the machine like laser
triangulation sensors to measure the planarity of the contacts of
large-area components. A component height sensor measures the
height of mechanically sensitive components. The head can also
measure electrical characteristics of the components during the
placement process. A self-diagnostic analysis detects blocked
nozzles and performs a nozzle cleaning cycle.
Moreover further tools for diverse processes like glue dispensing and laser soldering can be integrated. Also a process module,
that enables pick and place machines to place components on 3D
circuit carriers, is applicable. This module has integrated motors to
extend the machines kinematics [157].
In the future even smaller parts with sizes of 0.3 mm by
0.15 mm must be gripped and handled reliably by SMD pick and
place machines.
Different sectors such as chemical analysis (e.g. uid injection
analysis, microvalves), medical sector (e.g. drug delivery, heart
pacemaker, hearing aid), electronic sector (e.g. Micro Fuel Cells)
and telecommunications (e.g. High frequency applications, Bluetooth antennas, resonators) need electronic parts based on ceramic
substrates due to material properties such as stability at high
temperatures and resistance to chemical agents, and/or biocompatibility.
To produce such components green ceramic tapes are used.
They are made of a mixture of ceramic powder, polymer binder and
solvent and are stored in tapes with a thicknesses varying between
100 mm and 400 mm.
The production process of a device consists of several phases
needing grasping, handling and positioning: rstly a tape is cut
in parts, then they are handled and processed (printed, coated,
embossed, etc.), later grasped again and positioned with high
accuracy (<5 mm) in stacks. At the end a sintering process
cements all layers of the stack to one device. Since cut parts
from green ceramic tapes are in the form of sheets of non-rigid
material, the main challenges for automation (mainly due to
grasping) are: (i) force control, (ii) distortion-free handling
and (iii) no contamination of the surface [177]. To deal with
the aforementioned problems a force controlled handling
system has been developed. It consists of a at vacuum gripper
obtained through a rigid surface with a high hole density [223].
By controlling the air-ow the suction underpressure is
regulated.
At rst glance photovoltaic (PV) applications seem to have a lot
in common with electronics especially the semiconductor industry. Based on a same at silicon substrate, several process steps are
needed to rene the raw material (quartz sand) to a high tech
product.
Among a lot of other differences, the handling of PV substrates
is in many ways special. Current production runs processes on
156 156 mm silicon wafers, with a thickness of approximately
180 mm.
The major challenge in handling PV substrates in mass
production is the gentle transport at very high speed [83]. To
stay competitive in terms of throughput at least one substrate per
second must be picked up, transported (approx. 800 mm) and
placed well oriented and positioned while reaching yield losses
lower than 1%. [108]
689
Fig. 27. Typical gripper principles in PV industry [220]: (1) Bernoulli gripper; (2)
vacuum cups; (3) area-gripper.
Several studies [68,69] have shown that a dedicated choice of

gripper and gripping principle is benecial to production quality.
Because the surface structure of the substrates changes during
processing, handling parameters need to be adapted accordingly.
State of the art grippers in current mass production can be
classied according to their working principle into the following
three classes (Fig. 27) [120]:
(1) Due to the minimal contact between gripper and substrate
during handling, the Bernoulli-grippers are quite popular in PV
industry. The Bernoulli-effect always causes a sometimes
unwanted open air stream in the working area during the
active gripping phase. [83,106,127129,182]
(2) The vacuum based grippers differ in size, shape and amount of
suction cups. The contact between wafer and gripper is
punctually at the location of the cups. The generated gripping
force depends on the total area of the vacuum cups in contact. It
means high load during the transportation and a reliable
grasping.
(3) The area gripper is a gripper where almost the whole gripping
surface is active. In this case the gripping force is more balanced
and the pressure exerted on the wafer is smaller when
compared to the other grippers. In Fig. 27.3a vacuum area
gripper is shown. Other examples are electrostatic grippers
[74], well known in semiconductor industry, or gecko tapes as
in the NanoForceGripper, where the gripper uses Gecko1Nanoplast1, or in [7]. Their ability to clamp substrates safely by
generating a homogeneous force between substrate and
electrostatic chuck can be an advantage even for thin and
ultra-thin substrates. The major drawback in the eld of PV
mass manufacturing is the related cost for investment and
operation. In addition, to guarantee a stable handling process,
the gripping device should be positioned quite close to the
substrate with an additional complexity to the overall handling
system.
Electrostatics is one of the most used principles for handling
wafer and photovoltaic cells. The number of patents in this eld
demonstrates the impact of such technology. Electrostatic chucks
consist of a set of electrodes arranged in different ways (matrix,
arrays, concentric circles, etc.). Recently a study [178] introduced
adaptability as a method to increase the grasping force in this kind
of gripper. One of the most advanced solutions to avoid contact is
the use of object levitation generated above an ultrasonic
sonotrode [166,167,173].
3.3. Microassembly
The miniaturization of components is a general trend throughout the industry. Thus microsystem technology is becoming more
and more common. The high volumes and precision requirements
force the industry to use automated machines for handling and
assembly of microproducts.
Besides the common actuation devices used in generic grippers
(e.g. spindle or linear motors, pneumatic or hydraulic systems),
other special methods are used in this area. In order to achieve
small but precise positioning piezo-electric or shape memory
690
materials are used as actuators in the grippers. Piezo-electric

actuators are typically small but provide a high force and allow
accurate positioning. Shape memory systems use an external heat
source (usually a laser beam) to create a dened deformation
which is used as the gripping actuation.
Handling of parts smaller than 1 mm becomes increasingly
difcult, because the mass forces are weaker than van der Waals,
electrostatic or capillary forces. To minimize those effects it is
necessary to use specic hard materials, conductive coatings and
dry air [214].
If the handling system cannot sufciently full the precision
requirements an external reference may be necessary. Usually a
laser-based position-measuring instrument is used to control the
grippers absolute position. A closed loop control guides the handling
system and corrects the position according to the external data to
achieve the needed precision. This can be applied to a wide range of
handling systems. It can be used in combination with generic
industrial robots or highly specialized assembly systems. [171]
For small production batches or prototypes it is not feasible to
create highly specialized and automated systems. Tele-assembly
(assembly assisted by magnied vision systems) may be a useful
solution for such circumstances. They scale down the macroscopic
movement of the operator in order to allow precise positioning of
mini and micro components. Such a system with force-feed-back
control and precise video system has been developed for high
precision handling of small parts [223].
The manipulation and assembly of micro components and
products pose a number of challenges. In [2,90] micro components
are dened as products, whose functional features or at least one
dimension are in the order of mm.
In wafer based manufacturing processes a large number of
small scale components are made and placed on a wafer accurately
[2]. The nature of the processes (iterations of lithography, etching
and material deposition) makes it possible to build ultra-precise
components and also to know their relative position on the wafer
with an extremely high precision. This enables handling and
assembly of small scale components by parallel methods (e.g. ip
chip assembly). As opposed to wafer based manufacturing
processes, serial production of micro products requires the
individual handling of single components or sub-assemblies. A
comprehensive overview was made in [214]. The requirements for
this type of handling include expected precision below 100 mm
(and in most cases below 10 mm), 3D capabilities in orientation
and positioning, low forces in order not to break the parts and
sensing abilities to some extent.
Surface forces (including electrostatic forces, surface tension
forces and van der Waals forces) become dominating over the
gravity force and this may cause the part to stick to the gripper or
be repulsed so that grasping is impossible. However, these surface
forces can also be used as a working principle for micro parts
handling.
Beyond downsized mechanical [61,192,224] or suction [94,95]
microgrippers, many principles have been exploited for grasping
mini and microparts: from electrostatics to van der Waals, from
capillary to ice grasping, from contactless handling as laser
trapping to ultrasonic levitation or Bernoullis principle [214].
Fig. 28 shows: (a) a mechanical microgripper; (b) an electrostatic
transparent microgripper; and a capillary microgripper and an ice

microgripper, respectively.
Van der Waals grippers are based on micro and nano structures
(e.g. thousands of cilia per square millimetre) which couple the
component surface and exert impressive forces [135,136,216,
80,146,91].
The study of van der Waals forces as a method for grasping and
releasing components started from replication of geckos setae to
grasp microparts. The principle has a high reliability during both
grasping and releasing; all materials can be handled by the gripper
in all environments vacuum included (since van der Waals forces
drop to zero in a polar medium). Hierarchical structures have been
demonstrated to be a good way for increasing adhesion [144,152].
Gecko grippers can be obtained using carbon nanotubes [7,208],
are quite rigid and have incredibly high forces per area unit, or
through replication [8]. Such grippers require some additional
degrees of freedom to release the microparts [91] in a precise and
reliable way.
Process chains become quite complex and for non-planar
shapes quite complicated to realize. Electrostatic forces have been
successfully employed to grasp [51,92,93,119,138,145] by exploiting fringing effects [56] and to manipulate micro components
[17,55] in a contactless way. The control of both electrostatic and
surface forces is highly inuenced by the production environment.
Humidity, static electricity and dust all negatively affect handling
and assembly operations.
Capillary forces as well have been used owing to the achievable
exibility and reliability [54]. Their main features are a favourable
downscaling law, a compliant behaviour, the capability of grasping
small and light components in a wide range of materials and
shapes and the ability to deal with delicate components as the
meniscus between the gripper and the object acts as a bumper
[122]. Moreover the liquid bridge provides the gripper with self
centering capabilities.
The main strategies [59] to release the micropart are [148,148]:
pushing microparts against an edge [122];
modifying the curvature of the gripper (from at to rounded, to
sharp tip) [19];
using air pressure by an injection of gas [12];
squeezing the meniscus through electrowetting [218] or through
mechanical connement [54].
Thermal grippers have also been successfully tested [118,123].
Both are based on phase transitions, but while the rst [118]
exploits water liquefaction/solidication, the second [123] uses
material softening/hardening as the grasping means.
The small size and weight of components allow ultrasound
waves to conne and levitate parts [173,217] and lasers to trap and
move cells in a liquid medium [10]. Manipulation of parts in a
submerged environment (pure water is used) has been used not
only for cells, but also extended to microparts in order to mitigate
some releasing problems [78]. In such an environment van der
Waals forces stop working. Conversely electrophoresis [214] and
dielectrophoresis [155] can be exploited, but also friction grippers
no longer suffer from sticking problems. Even cryogenic grasping
[78] and liquid handling (a different liquid than water [125] is user
as a capillary medium) have been successfully tested.
Recently contactless tweezers based on the liquid ow
generated by the vibration of two bubbles attached to the Ushaped tips of a rod have been proposed [111]. The bubbles,
generated through electrolysis, are excited at the resonant
frequency via a piezoactuator. Their oscillation generates a
streaming ow able to handle microsphers in a liquid medium.
3.4. Food industry
Fig. 28. Examples of microgrippers: (a) jaw gripper before and during grasping; (b)
electrostatic gripper; (c) capillary gripper; (d) ice gripper.
Figure d reproduced with permission of CSEM SA.
In general food presents challenges normally not seen in nonedible products. But some challenges like softness and limp
behaviour are known from textiles and certain foam plastics and
rubber products. Many of the challenges in food handling are

unique when the combination of challenges is considered [33].
Certain well developed gripper solutions can be transferred
from the non-food sector into food handling when all special
requirements in the food sector are considered. This consideration
has led to some interesting and unique grippers for automatic food
handling.
Food material can be vegetable or meat or sh, but also
chocolates and cakes. Meat is always soft while vegetable food can
be soft or hard. The hard food material causes few gripping
problems. On the contrary soft food creates potential problems in
handling such as changes in shape during pinching with xed
grippers and damage to the surface of the object so that the quality
is reduced.
Uneven surfaces and non-uniform shapes present another type
of challenge. These characteristics eliminate many traditional
gripping techniques since the reliability of the gripping due to this
characteristic is low.
Hygienic requirements are the absolute and ultimate challenges. The gripping action should lead to no contamination of any
kind. Three types of contamination must be avoided [85]: toxic
contamination, bacterial of fungal contamination and discolouring.
To cope with all these challenges several grippers particularly
suited for food handling have been developed:
1. Enclosing grippers. This is a variety of the two-nger gripper
where the ngers have been given a more spade-like shape. On
closing the grip the object is enclosed by the spade ngers and
conned to a space that allows very different shapes to be
moved safely. The gripper is not accurate in positioning and
requires access under the object when gripping. They have to
adhere to all production cleaning guidelines, allowing sanitization to be performed quickly and easily. The meat gripper [130]
was specically designed to handle all types of meat, sh and
cheese in various fresh, cooked, frozen and sliced forms both as a
single portion and multiple portions.
2. Deep penetrating needle grippers. The gripper described in [84]
is suited for sh and land animal meat (Fig. 29a). It has several
needles that are forced into the meat and lock it in a rm grip.
For many meat products this gripping action does not harm the
product since needles also are used for injection of preservatives
or taste enrichments. The needle design requires a special
solution for cleaning to avoid contamination.
3. Suction grippers. Several principles have been demonstrated. A
Bernoulli-effect non-contact suction gripper has been developed
for thin sliced vegetables [37]. A suction gripper based on the
Coanda ejector suited for porous and irregular surface light food
objects is described in [131].
Fig. 29. (a) Needle gripper and (b) freeze gripper handling sh llet piece; (c)
exible fruit gripper with passive, sensitive foam and force sensor; (d) Switl1
handling solgel materials.
Figure d reproduced with permission of Furukawakikou Corporation Japan.
691
In the freeze gripper of Fig. 29b the gripping action is obtained

by pressing a surface with temperature below 10 8C against a
moist surface of the object to grip [132]. The object is immediately
attached to the gripper by freezing the surface water of the object.
Release is obtained either by a sharp knife mechanism that literally
cuts through the thin ice lm, or by reversing the heat ow to melt
the ice lm.
Another possibility is the combination of active and passive
systems. This can avoid the high cost of a fully active gripper, by
using cheap exible parts. A gripper for fruit has been developed
with this method in mind. Handling systems for food products
must be easy to disassemble and must withstand moisture, thus
the use of electronic parts has to be limited. The developed fruit
gripper can handle different fruits, ranging from small oranges to
large pineapples. The optimal gripping is ensured by a simple, onedimensional force gauge, which controls the pressure applied by
the jaw gripper. Highly exible and sensitive rubber foam adapts to
the different sizes and forms of the fruits. Fig. 29c shows the
gripper holding an apple [168].
The Switl1 [77] is a novel gripper able to grasp and handle
materials even in a sol or gel state, without losing their shape. It
enables sol-gel dough products to be handled on a production line
without stopping the conveyor. It is formed by an advancingretracting spatula covered by a textile belt: when the spatula
advances the belt is spread even below soft products with almost
no friction (Fig. 29d).
3.5. Logistics
Under the pressure of market globalization, attempts to
introduce higher degrees of automation in logistic processes are
increasing. Currently fully automatic systems for palletizing and
depalletizing standardized goods in structured environments
have been adopted even by SMEs [180]. The request for exible
systems in logistics is promoting the adoption of industrial
robots [198] and gripper technology is crucial for effective
operation, considering the great variance of goods in terms of the
shape, size and weight, as well as surface properties and stiffness
[67]. Often individual gripping systems are needed. The case of
packed goods is an example. Even if the packed goods appear in
one shape with a variation of their width, length and height,
autonomous systems are rarely available for real world applications as demonstrated by recent research requests to develop
such solutions [63].
A big market for automation in logistics is the container
emptying process. Nowadays, most goods are shipped in containers and are transferred onto trucks for further transport [46,126].
The container trafc has a direct link with world trade and
therefore to the world economy [133].
Containers are emptied manually since transported goods are
nearly always packed chaotically, their variety is high and time
requirements are strict. The increasing costs for human labour
(grown from 2008 to 2012 more than 8% [97]), combined with the
unhealthy working conditions, make automated solutions highly
desirable.
In the eld of extra-logistics the good is mainly the container
itself. But containers are standardized and the challenge is not
primarily gripping but their automatical transfer and transport
[147,225]. Conversely, in intra-logistics (included the llingemptying of the goods in containers) the grasping and handling
of goods is still a challenging task. Here different goods have to be
transported and placed in a controlled manner. Goods can be
classied from the point of view of the automated handling in:
1. Palletized goods: handled with a fork lifter. Further processing is
either de-palletizing or direct transfer into swap bodies or
containers for redistribution.
2. Not standardized: goods are handled manually. Their processing
depends on their properties (shape, size, weight) and is
therefore individual.
692
3. Loose standardized mass goods: which are mainly consumable

goods as well as goods, which are transported in jute or sisal
sacks e.g. coffee beans, are unloaded manually.
Therefore handling of loose, standardized mass goods has a high
potential for being automated because the packaging is more or
less standardized and the subsequent processes are similar [47,1].
Some gripping systems used in the eld of intralogistics are
presented in the following paragraphs.
The process of unloading parcels out of containers and swap
bodies under real conditions [22] is a challenging task, especially
for the gripping technologies. Parcels have a high variability in size,
weight and permeability of the material. In containers they are
often jammed in piles, stapled neatly or conversely accumulated
chaotically. Subsequently they are often only accessible from one
side, are often strapped by a plastic belt and very often are
damaged [48].
The used technologies are mainly based on vacuum: from selfadjustable vacuum cups [99], to foam grippers (able to suit variable
sizes and shapes), to grippers with self-opening and closing valve
systems (Figs. 30 and 31). Their main limit is the load they can lift.
To increase the maximum load other grasping strategies can be
found in the literature, as for example the telescopic-gripper
(Fig. 30a) based on a combination of suction and clamping. Two
suction cups (rectangular in shape) are positioned vertically and
are responsible for the lifting of the parcel. Another cup (circular in
shape) is mounted on a side of the gripper. After the parcel is
grasped by the two rectangular suction cups, it can be pulled out of
the pile a bit in order to create a gap to the parcels behind. Then the
telescopic slide-out extends until a sensor identies the end of the
parcel. Now the third suction cup is positioned on the parcel and
actuated. Furthermore the vertically adjustable plate is lowered
and by contracting the telescopic slide-out the parcel is clamped.
An integrated vacuum sensor monitors the stability of grasping.
Fig. 30. (a) Telescopic-gripper; (b) apping gripper in open and closed position
around a parcel.
Figures reproduced with permission of BIBA.
Fig. 31. Layer Gripper [194] and the self-activating valve system.
Another solution is the Flapping-gripper (Fig. 30b) developed for

the unloading of cuboid goods out of containers. It is based on selfactivating valves that open only when in contact with the good and
close when the contact is missed. This standardized module
combined with sensors and rotary drives ensures a exible
handling of parcels with different size and weight. Due to the
self-activating valves, the gripper is self-regulating. As long as a
vacuum is generated, all the valves are completely open. If there is
no vacuum the valves are closed. Hence the performance of the
gripper is still available even if the surface of the parcels is
damaged or partially permeable.
The Unigripper is a well-known and widely adopted technology
for grasping of parcels, cans and boxes. It is a at vacuum gripper
composed of a vacuum chamber with several self-activating valves
arranged in a matrix pattern. Soft rubber foam is located in the
front of the gripper and provides both object coupling and sealing.
The structure of the self-activating valves is similar to the one
shown in Fig. 31.
In order to grasp the parcel tightly even in case of unsuitable
surfaces, two grasping principles can be exploited simultaneously.
The rst one is the vacuum principle which can be assured by the
exible suction cups, the second one is the form closure generated
by small needles.
Requirements and constraints change when goods are palletized. The Robot Cell Light offers the possibility to pick up and
separate any cargo from a pallet, which has a closed and at
surface. [47]
The core of the Robot Cell Light is a vacuum gripper which can
grasp an entire layer from the pallet and separate the goods
afterwards. It can release the goods along a single line on the
conveyor belt. This is possible because the gripper is divided into
15 vacuum sections which can be switched off discretely. Each
section consist of 80 suction cups [175]. The vacuum gripper is
switched on and moved vertically by a drive belt until the sensors
detect the contact with the top of the pallet. Thanks to the
synchronization of the several valves and the conveyor belt, the
objects are released row wise [45,181].
Pallets often include products without a closed and at surface.
A layer gripper is made to lift incomplete layers or layers with
different goods with empty spaces among them (e.g. set of cans).
The Layer Gripper (Fig. 31) operates thanks to a combination of two
different grasping technologies [194]. A valve module is located in
the middle of the gripper and consists of a high number of suction
cups [154]. When a suction cup is located in front of an empty area,
the air ow closes the valve automatically, when it acts on the
upper surface of an object it remains open, the vacuum is created
and the object can be lifted. This suction pad is aided by
mechanical clamping bars mounted on every side of the gripper.
The clamping bars x the layer by moderate lateral pressure.
Therefore the grasping is a composition of the mechanical force
grasping due to the bars and the underpressure acting on the
upper surface of the layer. In this way the vacuum acts only where
it can grasp the objects, almost no lateral space is left and the
holding force is maximized thanks to the lateral skirts or bars.
Thus the gripper is able to grasp even incomplete layers, porous or
rough goods.
Another challenging problem is sack handling and container
emptying [159] owing to problems of object detection, edge
recognition, sack deformability and exibility. At present it is
completely manual. Coffee sacks represent an interesting case
because of the high value of coffee beans, but are quite challenging
because the material of coffee sacks is mostly of jute or sisal and
their weight is up to 70 kg (quite heavy compared to other logistic
goods) [117]. Only few researches focused on this problem.
A gripper consisting of two counter rotating rollers used to
entangle the textile of the sack, thus obtaining a stable grasp, is
described in [114]. The two rollers come into contact with each
other and with the sack to be grasped. The rollers start counterrotating and the textile of the sack is dragged by the friction forces.
When a certain quantity of the sack is between the rollers, the sack
can be lifted thanks to the normal and friction forces exerted by the
rollers.
An hybrid force/form/needle gripper has been proposed in
[117]. It is composed of three concentric claws able to rotate and is
located on the wrist of a robot. The gripper is pushed against the
sack and so each claw pierces the jute, then the claws are rotated
by 908 degrees. The roto-translational motion produces the form
closure.
The Needle-roller (Fig. 32) is a prototype gripping system for
unloading coffee sacks out of containers [174]. A roller equipped
with radial needles is longitudinally attached to the front of a
movable conveyor. A curved metal sheet partially covers the
needles while a series of apertures allow the needle to pass through
and properly penetrate the bags. The roller is eccentrically
positioned with respect to the metal sheet thus allowing the
needles to penetrate the coffee bag in the proper position and to
avoid damage to the bag. The gripping apparatus with its roller is
carefully introduced between two bags and put into rotation. The
upper bag is pulled off from the bag underneath, not involved in
the grasping. The rotation of the roller moves the bag onto the
conveyor belt from where it is dispatched. When the bag is on the
conveyor, the pockets in the metal sheet enable the rotating
needles to lose the contact between tissue and needles.
Fig. 32. Prototype of the Needle-roller gripping system.

Figure reproduced with permission of BIBA.
3.6. Integrated grasping and processing

Some automated processes like assembly include some kind of
action after or during the manipulation of the parts. For instance
applying force, torque or keeping the item in a xed position before
and during glueing or welding. These types of operations require
the interaction of forces between the gripper and the component.
The following section gives some examples of function
integrated grippers which contain both the original gripping
function and additional useful functions.
The handling of textile semi-nished products for the
manufacture of bre reinforced polymers (FRP), sets special
requirements for the gripping system. For example, textile seminished products, which are used to produce continuous FRPcomponents by the resin transfer moulding process (RTM) are airpermeable, dimensionally unstable and, in addition to that, very
sensitive. Damage caused during gripping leads to local surface
damage in the later component and must therefore be avoided to
the maximum possible extent. Furthermore, from the roll to the
nished FRP-component, the textile semi-nished product undergoes several process steps in which in addition to contour and
dimensional stability, also air-permeability, sensitivity, adhesiveness and its density changes.
The system described in [74] (Fig. 33a) is the combination of a
low-pressure surface suction gripper with a piezo-electrically
ultrasonic generator and can be used to link several process steps.
The use of ultrasonic vibrations deactivates the lateral force of this
system without inuencing the normal force, just as in the case of
contactless ultrasonic handling. Furthermore, the combined
ultrasonic-low pressure-gripping element can be used for the
activation and xation of textile semi-nished products by means
of binder systems and ultrasonic vibrations [74].
693
Fig. 33. (a) Prototype and functional principle of the combined ultrasonic-low
pressure-gripping element; (b) the Packaging gripper; (c) Cutting & Guiding device;
(d) microscrewdriver.
In the packaging industry there are often situations where

products have a distance from each other on the conveyor belt
different from the one they have in the packaging board. A possible
solution is to use a handling device that executes a pick-and-place
process to handle every part: the drawbacks are poor energy
efciency and the mechanical wear caused by the high number of
movements at high speed. To overcome this problem a gripping
device that contains a brace-and-group-module was developed
[142] (Fig. 33b). It consists of several vacuum gripping units which
are able to generate a relative motion within the gripper itself.
Thus, two objects with the same handling properties can be
collected at the same time for example from an assembly line and
change their position within the range of about 150 mm. In this
way the depicted brace-and-group module integrates the function
of separating and aligning into a simple vacuum handling device
[143]. A similar approach can be found in the food industry [105].
Automating the production of small batch production of 3Dcurved extrusion proles while maintaining higher exibility is
still a challenge [141]. For this purpose a prototype of a handling
system that can be mounted on a standard industrial robot
(Fig. 33c) was realized for production of extruded 3D-curved
aluminium proles [29]. Due to the fact that the prole leaves the
press at high temperature it would bend under the inuence of
gravity and deviate from its desired geometry as a consequence. To
avoid this effect the handling device grabs and clamps the
aluminium prole at the orice outlet of the press and guides it
along its 3D-contour until the extrusion process is completed.
Thereafter the tool cuts the prole to the desired length by using a
circular saw [71].
Also at the microscale some solutions involve both handling
and assembly operations. An example of such a device is a
combined vacuum gripper and screwdriver [82] shown in Fig. 33d.
Here the correct position between the micro screw and the
screwdriver is ensured by a geometrically dened vacuum
gripping surface. Special care was taken to ensure macro scale
and micro scale alignment [81] before the use of such system for
assembly of hearing aid components as described in [52].
Development is currently going towards convergence of different
processes in order to avoid single component handling. An
example is in-mould assembly during micro injection moulding
as for example described in [107].
Another example is a new gripper that grasps and joins micro
components using hot melt adhesives [160]. It consists of a suction
gripper with an integrated Peltier cell. The gripper picks up the
component, previously coated with a hot melt adhesive. In the
heating mode the gripped micro component and the adhesive are
heated up very fast to the melting temperature. After aligning and
joining the component to its desired position, the Peltier element
cools the adhesive and the gripper releases the micropart thus
reducing the adhesive curing time.
694
4. New developments in industry and research

In order to understand the trends in industry and research an
analysis of the devices patented during the last 20 years has been
performed by searching the word gripper in the title eld. Even if
the analysis probably underestimates the number of patents
concerning gripping devices it shows both dimensions and trends
for each patent class. The rst result is that almost the half of the
patents describing gripping devices belong to single inventors.
Fig. 34 summarizes the results of the analysis.
Furthermore the analysis shows that food industry and logistics
(both in house and external logistics) have played a dominant role
in the last 20 years and the trend of these two industries is in
continuous growth with higher and higher speed.
Fig. 34. Histogram of patents on grippers of the last 20 years organized according to
the different patent classes.
Simultaneously, in academia during the last years numerous

new grippers have been developed to improve grasping forces or
in-hand-manipulation and to better satisfy the requirements of
exibility coming from different elds. Many cases refer to hybrid
grippers since they exploit more than a single grasping principle in
the same gripper or implement design strategies to increase the
grasping force. In the following paragraphs some recent gripper
prototypes are presented.
Fig. 35. (a1) Compliant vacuum cup while approaching the leather and (a2) during
grasping; (b) Needle based Bernoulli gripper [156]; (c) Brush Bernoulli gripper.
Figures reproduced with permission of (b) Emerald Group Publishing; (c) Jonas &
Redmann Group GmbH.
The Hose gripper [24] is a exible gripper consisting of a doublewalled hose lled with water or air. The hose is contained in a pipe
and actuated by a plunger that moves up and down in the doublewalled hose. To make the gripper capable of grasping and lifting
objects, the underside of the hose is located over the object, thus
partially covering the object surface. When the plunger rises the
hose and the object are roped into the rigid pipe. The releasing is
performed moving back the plunger. The grasping is performed by
exploiting both form and force closure.
The patent US8172288 [109] and evolutions show a Bernoulli
gripper for holding two-dimensional components (e.g. wafers or
solar cells). The Bernoulli effect is created through the radial
motion of air which generates the negative pressure used to lift the
wafer towards a tilted ring of brushes. The brushes absorb the
impact of the wafer while a rubberized surface acts as a bearing
ring, providing the wafer with a slip-resistant movement (Fig. 35c).
The Jamming Gripper (Fig. 36) belongs to the class of jamming
devices [3]. It is based on a granular material contained in a exible
membrane. The balloon membrane is connected to the base
through a collar, producing an airtight seal. The collar is an
important element because it is the rigid part of the gripper (when
not actuated) and helps to guide the gripper and to t its shape to
the target. When the gripper and the object are coupled, vacuum is
provided and a transition from deformable to rigid state generates
the grasping force.
4.1. Adaptable and compliant grippers

Adaptable and/or compliant grippers have been developed to
meet requirements such as object variety, unpredictable shapes
(e.g. due to burrs, ashes), sensitive and deformable parts.
The handling of leather plies requires the gripper to assume
different shapes during the different grasping phases. A compliant
vacuum cup (Fig. 35a) satises the compliance requirements
thanks to the following features: it has the shape of a ower with
separate petals, the material is silicon rubber and each petal is
actuated by air jets [41]. When it approaches the surface the air jets
maintain the petals curved backwards (Fig. 35a1), then they are
switched off and suction is activated. During handling the borders
of the objects fall down due to gravity. Therefore the entire object
deforms and, if the vacuum cup does not follow the object shape,
the vacuum decreases and the object is released. The compliance of
the vacuum cup (due to both design and material) allows a reliable
securing phase (Fig. 35a2).
A method to increase the lifting force using the Bernoulli
principle on 3D objects is proposed in [156]. A deformable surface
has been used to reduce the average distance between the gripper
and the object (Fig. 35b). The lift force generated and the force
exerted on the product increased signicantly.
Fig. 36. Jamming gripper during handling of (a) a shock absorber; (b) a 3D complex
parts; (c) bottles.
Figures reproduced with permission of John Amend and Hod Lipson at Cornell
University and Empire Robotics.
The properties of the jamming gripper are based on the fact that
loose grains in a bag are at the threshold between owing and rigid
states. This behaviour enables the gripper to deform around the
target in the unjammed, malleable conguration, then to convert
into the hard conguration when jamming is initiated. Actually,
when vacuum is applied to the membrane, it increases the particle
connement and raises the rigidity while the shape around the
target is maintained almost completely.
To release the grasped object or to reset the gripper, the
pressure inside can be reduced to the atmosphere level or a
positive pressure can be applied. Such pressure inversion pushes
the object away.
4.2. Active grippers

Active grippers are emerging as a novel concept of end-effectors
able to combine the simple mechanics and control of underactuated devices together with dexterity, usually found only in
complex robotic hands.
The lack of exibility in terms of size, weight and geometry of
the objects to handle has prevented the automation in several
industrial elds [76]. In the robot supported intralogistics a new
device has been developed the Roll-On Gripper. Past grippers based
on roll-on principle were the layer-grippers [215,66,221]. The rollon principle is a friction-based gripping principle where a round
friction element is pressed to the front side of an object. The
friction element is turned backwards and, thanks to friction, the
object is lifted. Then the object can be pulled up onto the gripper.
The Roll-On Gripper has two roll-on modules with separately
actuated belts (Fig. 37a). The distance between the modules can be
adjusted and they can be turned so the belts oppose each other. In
this conguration the gripper is able to roll-on objects and, if
necessary, to turn them by running the belts in opposite directions.
Moreover with opposing belts the gripper is able to grip objects.
695
sort of spatula where the belt, coated with antifriction material,

can handle even soft objects.
Another gripper with in-hand-manipulation capability is a
parallel gripper with the ngertips driven by omnidirectional
driving gears [200]. The omnidirectional driving gears consist of a
2D rack with teeth organized in lines and rows (perpendicular to
each other) which form a matrix structure. Two electric motors
exert driving forces on the X and Y axes via the spur gears. When
the rst gear acts on the X direction the spur gear passes through
the teeth of the second one, and vice versa when the second gear
moves the spur gear in the Y direction [201]. Thus, the parallel
gripper can translate the grasped object in X and Y, and rotate it by
counter moving the right and left ngertip. Similarly the gripper in
[202] is equipped with three independently actuated ngers with
two active rotational axes each. Thus the gripper can manipulate
the grasped object with any arbitrary directional axes.
5. Trends in research and open issues
In general, during the last decade a lot of industrial applications
required a more and more sensitive grasping. Components that
require such handling are becoming increasingly common,
because of the miniaturization of product parts throughout all
branches and the integration of sensors and electronics into daily
appliances. Depending on the product requirements there are two
main trends in the integration of the necessary sensitivity into a
gripper. On the one hand passive systems allow the gripper to
comply with the object shape. In most cases this so-called
compliance is created by using exible materials or springs. On
the other hand active systems realize this compliance by
integrating sophisticated sensors and actuators [139].
Passive compliant grippers are generally cheaper and more
robust. They achieve their sensitivity with exible materials like
rubber and elastic plastics. The easiest solution is to attach these to
the jaws of conventional gripper. More sophisticated solutions are
customized grippers with smart mechanical characteristics.
On the basis of the analysis of the literature some trends less
general than the previous one have been observed. They are
analyzed in the following paragraphs.
5.1. Adaptable coupling surface
Fig. 37. (a) The Roll-On Gripper; (b) the Velvet Finger with a small beer box [206]; (c)
the Traction Gripper; (d) the Robotic hand effector with detail of the active belts.
Figures reproduced with permission of (a) Fraunhofer IPA; (b) Centro E. Piaggio; (c)
Fraunhofer IML; (d) Robin Read).
Similarly, the Velvet Finger [204] consists of a palm and two

ngers formed of one proximal and one distal phalanx (Fig. 37b).
The gripper is under-actuated (the number of degrees of freedom is
lower than the number of actuators), one motor actuates closure
while other two motors move the belts independently, thus
enhancing the manipulation capability of the gripper [205].
Slightly different is the Traction Gripper (Fig. 37c) consisting of
double belt conveying units arranged perpendicular to each other.
Each unit has traction belts that exert a friction force allowing the
grasping of differently shaped goods. Each conveyor belt has a
separate drive chain. The inward conveying motion of the traction
belts causes friction between the active surfaces, thus the object is
pulled into the right angle and held rmly.
A slightly more complex structure (Fig. 37d) is based on a twin
gripper using two interlinked belts, maintained in constant
tension, as active surfaces [162]. The length of the belts within
the jaws can be varied to modulate the gripping forces. Moreover,
proper belt motions allow the grasped object to be rotated in-hand.
Such an approach was already applied in [158] where two parallel
ngers equipped with high friction belts could grasp an object by
closing the ngers, rotate it by counter moving the belts or even
expel it by moving the belts simultaneously outwards. The last
example in this belt equipped category is the already cited Switl1 a
Many grippers exploit the characteristics of the contact surface to

improve the grasping of the object. Such an approach has twofold
goals: increasing the surface area in contact and reducing the
average distance between the gripper surface and the object surface.
The concept of adaptable coupling surfaces in grippers has a long
history: the Omnigripper was developed in late 1985 [184]: a two
nger mechanical gripper equipped with two ngers consisting of a
matrix of 8 16 spaced pins that can move up and down
independently. With all the pins fully extended, the gripper is
lowered over an object that pushes up some of them while the others
surround it. After the pins have wrapped the object, the two slightly
separated ngers are moved together and grasp the object.
Actually, the capability of the grasping surface to couple the
object surface can increase the grasping force: examples are
grippers that exploit weak forces as van der Waals [91],
electrostatic [153] and capillary [125]. That is true also in case
of strong force elds such as the adaptable Bernoullis gripper
(Fig. 35b) or mechanical grippers as the bionic gripper (Fig. 39a). A
recent work [125] exploits the wet adhesion of a magnetoreological uids and the possibility of controlling their viscosity and
capillary force through a magnetic ux.
5.2. Single piece grippers
Shape memory alloys (SMA) or polymers (PMA), electroactive
polymers (EAP) and McKibben actuators have been used as robotic
muscles for years. Examples of them as ngers with integrated
actuation can be found in [11]. In Fig. 38a1 and a2 a four EAP
696
Fig. 38. Electroactive material base gripper (a1) while approaching and (a2) during
grasping (b) SMA microgripper; (c) pneumatically actuated soft gripper.
Figures reproduced with permission of (a) Yoseph Bar-Cohen, JPL/Caltech/NASA; (b)
IEEE [224]; (c) Nadia Cheng, MIT.
actuators are used as ngers of a gripper, while in Fig. 38b a SMA

microgripper is shown. While SMA and SMP are mainly used at
micro scale [15], EAP [11] and pneumatic McKibben actuators [38]
have found application for grasping both micro and standard parts;
recently hydraulic McKibben actuators have been used for
grasping big cylinders [140].
Nowadays a new class of robots and grippers is emerging:
pneumatically actuated soft robots (Fig. 38c). Actually, even if
some examples of inatable grippers can be found on the market
many applications appeared in the last ten years.
Soft pneumatic grippers for handling fruit and delicate objects
as in [30,98] have been followed by many other examples with a
higher number of ngers [39]. Actually, thanks to a single source of
actuation and a few valves the control of complex multi-nger
structures also is possible [197]. A recent review of soft robots is
available in [116].
The Origami-Inspired folded gripper [207] is obtained from a
single polymer sheet (prototypes in PEEK, acetal copolymer and
polyester) by laser cutting. It consists of three two-segment ngers
attached to a tensioner. The tensioner is a linear spring element
obtained through folded structures. Three tendons link the tips of
the ngers to the bottom of the tensioner. Thus the gripper is
maintained closed until this tension is released.
The technology that enables the manufacturing of single piece
grippers is Additive Manufacturing (AM) [23,79,222,124]. It is
well-known that AM gives engineers advantages like integrated
functionalities and combined functions in a lower number of parts
as well as the possibility of creating structural features inside the
parts to meet loads and stresses.
The adaptive gripper of the Bionic Handling Assistant [87]
consists of a pneumatic drive and three ngers based on sh tail
ns (Fig. 39a). The structure gives the gripper exibility and
resilience in particular when holding and transporting sensitive
objects or objects with varying contours. The n structure is able to
couple with a wide range of component shapes.
The actuation of the gripper is obtained through a series of

exible bellows also built by additive manufacturing. The chosen
material is Polyamide 12, which has high elasticity when thin
structures are built and is increasingly stiff when compacted,
offering the possibility to integrate stiff and exible areas within
the same part without any assembly.
The Velo 2G gripper (Fig. 39c) has been developed [34] exploiting
the AM technology. It is a parallel gripper with the ability to
envelop objects in order to improve their stability during grasping.
It is composed of two ngers with two joints each, four springs and
a tendon driven by a single motor thus resulting in an underactuated design. The springs provide ngers extension while the
motor allows the gripper to execute ngertip or power grasps by
passively adapting to the object shape. Compliance and adaptability are made possible thanks to a tendon-springs system.
The gripper of Fig. 39d is an example of design focused on an
optimized combination of mechanical functions, stiffness, lightness and material saving: for example the air ducts (from the
connection point of the tube to the suction cups) are integrated in
the framework of the gripper.
5.3. Increasing gripper exibility
In order to deal with the problem of part variability there are
two typical solutions in industrial automation: (i) use of automatic
tool changers and (ii) End-Of-Arm Tooling (EOAT) powered with
multiple grippers. While tool changers do not integrate different
principles, but use only one, EOAT (especially used in logistics) can
have several grippers integrated in a single end-of-arm: forkshaped grippers, vacuum cups, mechanical friction ngers or jaws
able to grasp pallets, slip sheets and bags or boxes.
The impressive exibility of the Jamming Gripper (Fig. 36) is
promoting its emulation and use, and, more interestingly, new
derived grippers such as the one used for roong tiles (Fig. 40a).
These tiles are heavy and sharp edged objects which are stacked in
batches of eight or ten pieces. The surface of the tiles is very
sensitive to scratches and impact. When a batch of tiles is moved,
the rear sides of the upper tiles lay on the lower ones. To prevent
this kind of damage during the palletizing process it is necessary to
prevent the relative movement between the tiles. Therefore the
active surface of this clamping gripper consists of very tough
textile tubes lled with plastic grains. The tubes are connected to a
vacuum pump. If the two halves of the gripper are moved to the
batch the grains will be displaced and the tubes t the shape of the
batch. After the contact with the tiles, the tubes are evacuated and
the ngerpads remain frozen. In this way it is possible to create a
universal form closure independent from the shape of the grasped
object. For the releasing phase the pump is switched off and air lls
the tubes (Fig. 40a).
Fig. 40. (a) Jamming gripper for roof tiles; (b) De-Stacker.
Figures reproduced with permission of BIBA and Qubiqa.
Fig. 39. (a) The bionic gripper; (b) the Bionic Assistant [87] used for ex picker
application; (c) the Velo 2G gripper [103]; (d) vacuum gripper for automated high
speed handling applications.
Figures reproduced with permission of (a) FESTO; (b and d) Fraunhofer IPA; (c)
Willow Garage.
Another example is the De-Stacker (Fig. 40b). It consists of two

parallel Plates 600 mm 600 mm covered with foam, brushes or
rubber ns. It is able to handle different tray models (having
different heights and shapes) in a reliable way. While the previous
gripper is active, the de-stacker uses deformable passive materials

to cope with product variety.
5.4. Underactuation, compliance and synergies
Recently in robotics the concept of soft synergies created a
bridge between underactuation and the compliance.
An underactuated gripper/robotic hand has fewer actuators
than degrees-of freedom, and therefore the motion of some links is
always coupled to the motion of others. It implies two
consequences: (i) the control of underactuated hands is easier
than that of fully actuated systems, (ii) the combination of
underactuated control with intrinsically stable or nearly stable
kinematics can be very effective [43]. In these grippers the motion
of (many) links can continue after the rst link comes into contact
with the object allowing the gripper to passively adapt to the
object shape. An interesting underactuated robotic hand with
several rigid synergies among ngers has been successfully
implemented and tested [31]. The basic idea enabling shape
adaptation in underactuated hands is a differential transmission, a
mechanism that allows the distribution of the motion of a prime
mover to two or more d.o.f. [42]. Actually when a nger comes into
contact with the object the differential gear stops its motion and
makes the other ngers continue to close until all the other ngers
reach the contact. Only after the displacement stop, the grasping
force can rise. The Pisa/IIT Soft Hand is an example of an adaptive
underactuated hand driven by a single motor [32].
5.5. Active grasping surfaces
697
DxGrip-II [16]. The DxGrip-II accomplishes most of the capabilities

usually considered in dening dexterity, while keeping complexity at a minimum (only 4 actuators). It consists of two jaws that
are moved independently by motors. Each jaw has a rotating
ngerpad actuated by direct-drive motors. Fingerpads are covered
with compliant, high friction material. The distance between the
jaw planes can be changed independently from the distance
between the axes of the revolving ngerpads, while the jaws
always keep their parallel orientation. Thanks to its structure, it has
the possibility of (i) translating the grasped object in one direction;
(ii) rotating objects in hand and (iii) translating or rotating at
parts lying on a plane by combining equal or opposite angular
velocities of the rotating ngerpads.
5.8. Smart sensing
An emerging smart solution in the monitoring of gripping is the
integration of sensors in ngertips. This solution may provide high
performance but requires miniaturized devices. The ngertips of
the DLR Hand II contain tiny force-torque sensors (20 mm,
16 mm in height) [27]. The sensors consist of a mechanical
structure with applied foil strain gauge bridges and internal
electronics for signal conditioning and digital conversion.
Thereby, the sensors deliver digital force and torque values at
very high bandwidth and with very low noise [27]. A three-nger
dexterous hand with tactile sensors on the nger surface is
presented in [14]. The ngers are covered (Fig. 41) with a novel
low-cost and low-noise articial skin [213]. The skin of the gripper
consists of 132 normal-pressure-sensing taxels (tactile pixels)
and can measure forces up to 100 N.
The controllable adhesion between the gripper and the part is

one of the possible applications of active grasping surfaces.
A highly-compliant gripper powered with deformable electroadhesive pads able to grip a wide range of objects in very different
eld and environments is described in [101,153]. The segmented
nger follows the surface reducing the distance between the pads
and the object, thus increasing the electroadhesive force.
A exible nger [115] can t the surface of different shape
objects and, thanks to sticking elements activated or deactivated
at will, the grasping can be guaranteed. In the presented
implementation the elements are small suction cups, separately
controlled in the active or passive state.
5.6. From micro to macro
In the last 20 years many efforts have been devoted to the
solution of grasping of micro and nanoparts. Owing to a changed
scale and different physical principles dominating at the microscale, a deep multidisciplinary collaboration has been observed in
the eld. Completely new devices have been developed and it is
interesting to observe that some of them are coming back to the
macroworld: gecko tapes [150] and electrostatic exible grippers
are already in the market or close to it, while capillary grippers
need additional research efforts. The possibility of controlling
capillary forces has been recently demonstrated also in case of
standard objects (force up to 50 N) [125]. Recently [91] a novel
gripper based on van der Waals forces demonstrated interesting
grasping capabilities also in dynamic conditions. The gripper
exploits four directional adhesive pads that are insensitive to
normal preload: when shear force is applied in the correct
direction the pads turn in the adhesive state. The four pads of
directional adhesive are arranged in a square shape and are loaded
with internal shear forces in opposing directions thus creating a
normal force able to lift objects.
5.7. Cross over from robotic hands to grippers
Preliminary work in the direction of building evolved versions
of industrial grippers, with robotic hand-like dexterity, is reported
in [16]. An example of this class of grippers is the dexterous gripper
Fig. 41. Sensor suite on Robotiq Adaptive Gripper [14].

Figure reproduced with permission of Barrett Heyneman, Stanford University.
Recent years have seen many efforts in the robotic community

in the development of sensors such as touch sensors, force sensors
and stick-slip sensors. While probably only a few of them will
reach the market, however they will dramatically change the
capability of grippers As the number of sensors increases, the need
for exchange of data with the gripper increases and the overall
reliability decreases.
In fact a counter-trend exists and forecasts are really difcult.
Instead of creating a sophisticated gripper, it is possible to shift
the sensitivity to the robot. An example of this alternative is a
lightweight robot with built-in torque sensors. This robot can
control the applied force and react accordingly. A traditional
gripper is used for grasping and the robot measures the applied
forces during the assembly process and tries to minimize them.
This is used in the assembly of highly sensitive parts, with
minimal tolerances like combustion engine cylinders or o-rings
[193].
698
5.9. Hazardous environments

Often, the most radical innovations come from aerospace or
military applications, therefore in the case of grasping technologies, an analysis on these elds can provide interesting insights.
For the grasping of hot and hazardous parts a series of
alternative solutions can be found among handling devices
developed in other elds for different purposes. For example for
disarming explosives, such as roadside bombs and car bombs,
researchers use mechanical two nger grippers or robotic hands as
end-effectors of teleoperated robots [36]. Some of these solutions
can be adopted also in industrial processes.
A similar approach is used in the oil and gas industry where a
subsea maintenance vehicle is provided with one or more
manipulators: simple multifunctional parallel grippers with
overlapping ngers. Such a solution allows a good grasp on
irregular shaped or cylindrical objects and is particularly suitable
for handling cables and pipes [58].
Both spacecraft and space robots use different kinds of grippers
to perform maintenance operations or for grasping and analysing
samples. Many of them belong to the class of jaw grippers, but few
examples advantageously exploit different principles.
NASA [151] developed an omni-directional anchoring mechanism able to generate forces greater than 100 N on natural rock
surfaces. The anchor is composed of compliant microspines
organized in an octagonal conguration with rows of 30
microspines on each corner.
A new robot arm uses electrostatic forces to grasp objects in
zero-gravity conditions, from satellites to space junk. It consists of
a movable mechanical gripper with static pads located on the four
nger tips. The gripper can stick to any surface because it is soft and
compliant thus increasing the electrostatic adhesion [176].
6. Conclusions
After presenting a systematic framework for grasping, releasing
and sensing tasks in automated industrial processes, this paper has
analyzed research work of the last ten years and has presented the
details of grippers, adopted sensors and grasping strategies.
Moreover the analysis of the recent developments in industry
and academia introduced both the still open issues and the present
and future trends in gripping technology.
In spite of the impressive advancement in grasping and
industrial process automatisation, the consumer goods industry
is continuing to face a lack of exible and fast solutions suitable to
the high production rates. More specically, the problem is that
high speed handling and feeding of parts require dedicated
equipment like feeders that are noisy, expensive and product
specic. To overcome this issue, high efciency solutions are
required and robotic handling seems to be the answer.
Notwithstanding the described advancements, some open
issues in grasping remain. Goods such as hazardous products or
parts to be handled in hazardous areas such as nuclear plants,
contaminated environments, end of life goods (deformed, crushed,
rusty appliances), but also soft or not rigid materials (e.g. sacks of
seeds, beans) need automatic solutions, grippers included.
Moreover there is a lack of methods and software to select or
design novel grippers. Such a need is partly addressed by an expert
system implemented for selecting the best mechanical gripper
from a catalogue [104]. However a wider approach able to deal
with different properties, gripper principles, and useful sensors is
still at the very early stage. Such tools will benet from an
integrated environment for the physical modelling of grippers and
quantitative analysis of their expected performance.
Furthermore, production processes are pushing research and
development towards more intelligent robotic hands and grippers
with an optimal balance between mechanical structure, sensors,
degrees of freedom and degrees of actuation. Even if robotic
research is continuing to try to emulate human hands, industrial
grippers can benet from many different grasping principles that
better satisfy the innumerable industrial needs. Moreover the new

trends in bimanual handling [134], humanrobot collaboration
[121], low cost sensors and control electronics are promoting a
more holistic design of grippers where cognitive aspects, gripper
complexity and exibility are completely integrated in a fully
robotic environment.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Klaus Feldmann, Dirk Lehmhus,
Jacopo Tilli, Claudia Ehinger, Johannes Schilp, Moritz Rhode,
Claudio Uriarte, Kolja Schmidt, Manuel Baumeister, Ester Ruprecht,
Pfeffer Michael, Annika Raatz, Sotiris Makris, Rhythm Suren
Wadhwa and Sebastian Hogreve.
This work was partially supported by RobLog Project (FP7 ICT270350) and by the University and Federal State of Bremen within
the APF-Schwerpunktprojekt Integrated Solutions in Sensorial
Structure Engineering (ISIS-Grant number 007056).
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CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology

Grasping devices and methods in automated production processes

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

2. The grasping process

The complexity of the grasping process is often underestimated

 Approaching the object: the gripper is positioned nearby the

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

Fig. 1. Typical phases of the grasping process [57].

Fig. 2. Grasping principles.

The grasping principle can be dened as the physical principle

Fig. 3. Mechanical grippers: (a) two ngers; (b) piezoelectrically actuated

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

Such a force generates a corresponding static friction force when

Fig. 4. Releasing strategies.

dry atmosphere decreases surface tension effects (but increases

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

the gripper or might be mounted on an external xture. Different

Fig. 5. Sensing principles: (a)

Mechanical switch; (b) electrical sensor; (c)

2.3.1. Presence detection

usage of vision based sensors. The tip of the gripper is monitored by

Fig. 7. Microgripper with a force sensor attached to the wrist [49].

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

Fig. 9. Gripper with two sensorized ngers [210].

Although the cost of such solutions is mostly very high some

Fig. 12. Mechanically amplied micro gripper [61].

Another example of an integrated force sensor can be found in

2.3.3. Measuring of position or orientation

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

production processes. They have to meet different requirements

Fig. 14. Grasping principles vs. applications.

3.1. Standard mechanical assembly

Other factors such as the feeding conditions (e.g. stacked vs.

3.1.1. Assembly in aerospace industry

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

processes can be fully automated. Especially for the assembly and

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

exerted during manipulation (i.e., weight, inertia forces, grasping

Fig. 19. Problems in handling non-rigid parts.

A non-rigid object can be grasped in different ways according to

Mechanical grasping is based on the use of ngers. It often

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

In grasping 2D objects, two different approaches are possible:

conductive and insulating materials, but their performance

Ingressive grasping is divided in non-intrusive methods (Velcro

The holding forces of suction grippers can easily be increased by

A cryogenic gripper using Peltier elements is described in

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

Preforming is a critical step in the manufacture of continuous

Some grippers for explosive atmospheres (gas/air, dust/air) are

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

A second camera registers ducial marks on the PCB to measure

Several studies [68,69] have shown that a dedicated choice of

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

materials are used as actuators in the grippers. Piezo-electric

transparent microgripper; and a capillary microgripper and an ice

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

rubber products. Many of the challenges in food handling are

In the freeze gripper of Fig. 29b the gripping action is obtained

G. Fantoni et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 63 (2014) 679701

3. Loose standardized mass goods: which are mainly consumable

Approaching the object: the gripper is positioned nearby the