Design algorithm for automated dynamic grasping of live birds

Presents a method for designing a dynamic grasper for handling natural objects (such as live birds) for subsequent processing. The dynamic grasper uses flexible fingers to accommodate a limited range of varying sizes, shapes, and some motion due to the live object's natural reaction to mechanical grasping. As compared to fingers with multiple active joints, flexible fingers have many potential advantages, because they are lightweight and they have no relative individual moving parts in each of the fingers. The advantages of flexible fingers are seldom exploited for grasping, however, because of complicated analysis involved in their design. For this reason, we present an analytical method for designing a dynamic grasper for handling natural objects on a moving conveyor.