Design and Analysis of a Soft Gripper for Human Interactive Robot

Body ache is one of the major problems faced by old people. Manual body massage is a common remedy for pain relief. To automate the process of comfort and physical relief, a gripper is needed. There are many types of grippers available, but they are very hard in nature and are not suitable for direct human contact. The proposed work presents a soft gripper to provide light pressure for relaxing the muscles and for relief from body pain. A three-dimensional (3D) mould is manufactured using a FabX 3D printer. Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR 110) A and B resin mixture is made to set using the 3D mould to fabricate the soft gripper. The control of tentacles is done using Arduino UNO and pressure sensor details are monitored to find optimal pressure required to hold and lift the objects. The experimental result shows that the gripper control is easy and it is suitable for human interactive robots.