A Stretchable Jamming Gripper Grasping Flat Plates

Ryoma Toyoda; Yuhei Yamada; Zebing Mao; Yu Kuwajima; Takane Sugisaki; A. M. N. N. Senevirathna; Chinthaka Premachandra; Naoki Hosoya; Shingo Maeda

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3383919

IEEE Access (Jan 2024)

A Stretchable Jamming Gripper Grasping Flat Plates

Ryoma Toyoda,
Yuhei Yamada,
Zebing Mao,
Yu Kuwajima,
Takane Sugisaki,
A. M. N. N. Senevirathna,
Chinthaka Premachandra,
Naoki Hosoya,
Shingo Maeda

Affiliations

Ryoma Toyoda: Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Yuhei Yamada: ORCiD; Living Systems Materialogy (LiSM) Research Group, International Research Frontiers Initiative (IRFI), Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan
Zebing Mao: ORCiD; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Yu Kuwajima: ORCiD; Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Takane Sugisaki: Department of Electronic Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
A. M. N. N. Senevirathna: Department of Electronic Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Chinthaka Premachandra: ORCiD; Department of Electronic Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Naoki Hosoya: Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Maeda: ORCiD; Living Systems Materialogy (LiSM) Research Group, International Research Frontiers Initiative (IRFI), Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3383919
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12
pp. 48764 – 48773

Abstract

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The demand for drone-based object transportation has been rapidly growing recently. Current drones face limitations in their ability to grasp objects on the flat surface. To address this issue, our study presents a universal jamming holding system with the capability to grasp flat surfaces. In general, jamming grippers cannot grasp flat surfaces. Here we have introduced a stretchable membrane and spherical shape to the gripper, allowing our jamming gripper to grasp flat surfaces. We assumed that when the stretchable membrane attaches to an object, the stretchable membrane spontaneously forms microscopic suction cup-like structure at the contact area. Our jamming gripper then can grasp flat objects by the effect of the suction cup-like structure. Our jamming gripper is ideal for drone mounting as it maintains the center of gravity during the gripping process and can operate with low positional accuracy. In addition, our jamming gripper operate on a pneumatic circuit powered by a solenoid valve, allowing our drone to hold objects without consuming energy. Our experimental results demonstrated that an acrylic plate could support a load of 945 g on a flat surface at a filling rate of 75%. Our gripper also has a good adsorption force on metal, acrylic, ice, and other surfaces. The gripping force of our grippers is independent of the pressing force. Our jamming gripper can be mounted on a drone and controlled wirelessly to perform grasping movements autonomously, making them highly versatile. It can be applied to various situations where the shapes of objects to be grasped are uncertain, such as delivery of goods to remote areas or sample collection.

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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