Design & Fabrication of soft robotic

gripper for handling fragile objects

Presented by
Group No-6

Ashraf Raza Rohit R R Project Guide

Rohan N Kalal P Sai Srinivas Dr.Vishwanth Koti
PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Grocery stores deal with fragile inventory every day, such as
fruits and vegetables which are irregular in shape, and boxes
and cans that are vulnerable to damage.
• In many of the cases the objects must be untouched by hand
while packing to stop spreading dangerous diseases like
COVID-19. This is also known as contactless packaging.
• To achieve this the robotic gripper handling the objects must
be non-toxic and must be highly adaptable to the shape of
the object being packed.
• As the e-commerce industry is spreading very fast in India,
there is a necessity to improve the efficiency of the workers
and cut down on labour costs with the help of human friendly
robots.
  Soft Robotics is a sub field of robotics dealing with
construction of robots using highly flexible
materials.
 Soft robots are primarily composed of easily
deformable matter such as fluids, gels, and
elastomers that match the elastic and rheological
properties of biological tissue and organs.
 In contrast to robots built from rigid materials, soft
INTRODUCTION robots are
✓ Flexible
✓ Adaptable
✓ Improved safety
 These characteristics are used in the field
of manufacturing and medicine.
 WHY SOFT ROBOTICS?
 Soft robotics are able to perform tasks simply impossible to complete
before without the input of human work.
 According to Bastian Solutions Global Material Handling System
Integrators, by using precise and inexpensive soft robotics, distribution
centers can reallocate the 65% of labor that is currently dedicated to the
handling of delicate edibles.
 Thus, soft robotics will make distribution processes more efficient,
decreasing production costs for affected companies.
 Apart from creating more efficient production processes, soft robots
address the problem of wear and tear that robots with hard structures
face.
 The material-derived resilience of soft robots lessens the effects of wear
and tear, making them more appealing to manufacturers looking to
subject their machinery to considerable daily strain.
 About the gripper material

Mechanical design consideration

LITERATURE
Methods to control the gripper
SURVEY
Applications of soft robotics
ABOUT THE GRIPPER MATERIAL
Silicone rubber is an elastomer composed of silicone (a
polymer) containing silicon together with carbon, hydrogen
and oxygen.

❖ It is non-reactive, stable, resistant

to extreme temperatures (-55 oc
to 300 oc)
❖ Tensile failure stress of 1.4 MPa –
10.3 MPa.
❖ Elongation of more than 700%.
❖ Density: 0.9 - 1.2 g/cm 3
❖ Easy to shape and manufacture.
MECHANICAL DESIGN CONSIDERATION
FOR GRIPPER MATERIAL
➢ The material must be able to sustain repetitive
compression and decompression.
➢ It must be able to sustain extreme temperatures
and weather conditions.
➢ The gripper material must not react with the
atmosphere and the objects which it is grasping.
 METHODS TO CONTROL THE GRIPPER

▪ Electric field – Usage of high voltage electric field to

change the shape of the gripper.

▪ Thermal - Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) are used to

serve as an example of thermal actuation like nitinol
wires.

▪ Pressure difference - Relies on changing the pressure

inside the flexible air chambers through the use of
pneumatic valves.
APPLICATIONS OF
SOFT ROBOTICS

1.Climbing Robots

• These robots can reach where humans cannot and that makes them
particularly interesting.
• They have the potential to be used at great heights for conducting
inspections, maintenance work in high-rise buildings and even search and
rescue missions.
• Some climbing robots are designed to bend when they move, just like
caterpillars. These kinds of robots are particularly helpful in climbing walls of
high structures.
2. Wearable robots

• Biomimetic devices include robots thatcan

help patients while they are recovering from
injury and undergoing physical
rehabilitation.
• These robots mimic the natural movement
of the patient’s body wherever placed. This
helps the patient to regain normal motor
movements if they have been affected due
to an accident.
• A soft robot that can be used at home
hand rehabilitation is improving the quality
of rehabilitation therapy.
3. Robotic Muscles

• Robotic muscles are being developed in

the most innovative ways that are possible.

• One method draws inspiration from

Origami (Japanese art of folding paper into
different shapes).

• One folded structure of the robotic muscle

is designed to lift as much as 1000 times its
weight.

• These muscles can be scaled from a few

millimetres to up to a meter in length.
4. Bio-Mimicry

• An application of bio-mimicry via soft

robotics is in ocean or space
exploration.
• In the search for extraterrestrial life,
scientists need to know more about
extraterrestrial bodies of water, as water
is the source of life on Earth.
• Soft robots could be used to mimic sea
creatures that can efficiently maneuver
through water.
 FEATURES OF OUR ROBOTIC GRIPPER
 As discussed earlier in the problem statement, there is a need to design a
soft gripper that can handle any irregular shaped objects which are
vulnerable to damages.
 The gripper can be used in warehouses of online grocery stores like
BigBasket and Grofers for pick and place and packaging applications
where objects of different shapes must be handled efficiently and without
damaging them.
 Our gripper is highly flexible and can adapt to grasp any object shape up
to 15cm of cubic dimension.
 The end effector consists of 4 flexible fingers which are pneumatically
actuated and a clamp to connect to the robot.
 Due to its modular design the fingers can be replaced individually, without
the need to replace the whole end effector at once.
 Due to its ability to sustain high pressures up to 0.5MPa, the gripper can
grasp the objects weighing up to 8Kgs.
 CAD modelling of the finger

CAD modelling of the moulds

3D printing of the moulds

SCOPE OF
Fabrication of Gripper assembly
WORK
Optimizing the pneumatic pressure

Testing of Gripper for various shapes

CAD Model for Finger

 The finger for the gripper is designed in FUSION 360.

 The finger consists of air chambers which will be filled with highly
pressurized air and projections for better gripping on the grasping
side.
 The following video shows how the finger looks from inside.
CAD Model of the Finger
 CAD Model of Moulds of the Finger

 For manufacturing the finger, the Silicone Rubber needs to be cast

to get the final shape.
 For this casting process, moulds are necessary which needs to be
customized in accordance with our design.
 These moulds must designed and 3D printed.
 These moulds are designed in FUSION 360.
 The following figures show the CAD models of the moulds of our
finger.
CAD model for the gripping part of the finger, which is the bottom mould.
Design of the mould for the air chambers, which will expand
according to the air pressure.
 3D Printing of the
Mould
3D Printing

The material used for 3D printing of

our mould is Poly Lactic Acid (PLA).

The company of the 3D printer is

 Final Moulds for Casting

These are the final parts of the 3D printed moulds which

needs to be assembled, in which the silicone rubber is
poured.
Mixture Preparation for Silicone Rubber

 We have used EcoFlex 00-30,as

our brand for Silicone Rubber
which contains 2 parts; Part-A
and Part-B.

 These parts are mixed in the

ratio of 1:1 to get the required
material.
 Stirring of the
mixture
stirring

After mixing both the parts, the

material has to be mixed thoroughly
to obtain uniformity.

The process of mixing is carried out

with the help of a magnetic stirrer for
about 5 minutes.
 Pouring Silicone rubber into the mould

After mixing Thoroughly in the magnetic

Stirrer, the material is then poured into the
mould slowly, so that it does not form the
bubbles.
 Baking of the mould and the casting

The mould and the casting are then baked

inside a hot air oven for about 4 hours at
60 oc.
 Removing the Casting
from the mould

After baking in the hot air oven, the casting

from the mould is taken out slowly.
 Iterations

• Due to improper stirring of the mixture,

we can observe blow holes on the
casting.
• Due to the baking temperature of
more than 60 0C, We observe
that the 3D printing material PLA could
easily deform.
Demo for the motion
of the finger when it is
pneumatically
actuated
 REFERENCES
• Wang, Z., Torigoe, Y., & Hirai, S. (2017). A Prestressed Soft Gripper: Design, Modeling, Fabrication,
and Tests for Food Handling. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2(4), 1909–
1916. doi:10.1109/lra.2017.2714141
• Hirose, S., & Umetani, Y. (1978). The development of soft gripper for the versatile robot hand.
Mechanism and Machine Theory, 13(3), 351–359. doi:10.1016/0094-114x(78)90059-9
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467–475. doi:10.1038/nature14543
• Majidi, C. (2014). Soft Robotics: A Perspective—Current Trends and Prospects for the Future. Soft
Robotics, 1(1), 5–11. doi:10.1089/soro.2013.0001
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Whitesides, G. M. (2014). Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly. Advanced
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THANK
YOU