Casting Manipulation—Midair Control of a Gripper by Impulsive Force

We have developed a casting manipulator that includes a flexible light string in the link mechanism to enlarge the workspace of the manipulator. In the casting manipulation, an end-effector is launched to its target by releasing the string connected to it, and its trajectory is controlled by the tension of the string. In this paper, we present the midair control of the end-effector. As a simple way, we propose the braking technique to apply impulsive force to the end-effector by braking the movement of the string. Examining dynamic characteristics of the string when an impulsive force applies to it, we show that the midair motion of the end-effector can be controlled by the braking technique. Then, we apply the braking technique to the multiple braking control of the trajectory. We confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method through simulations and experiments using casting manipulator hardware.