Synthesis, Design, and Experimental Validation of an Agile Wrist for Enhanced Grasping and Manipulation in Cluttered Environments: An Experimental Evaluation With a Challenging Pick-and-Place Task

In many practical cases, such as in logistics applications, grasping and manipulation of objects must be carried out in confined spaces with obstacles. Limited room is then available to maneuver, and robotic devices can lack dexterity or be impaired by their size when performing in such cluttered environments. In this article, we address this issue by proposing a novel agile wrist based on a rolling joint with a ± 180° range of motion (ROM). This wrist is designed to maneuver in confined spaces and in particular access hard-to-reach areas through entry apertures, while allowing the use of constraining grasping methods, such as scooping. The architecture of this device is discussed, and a prototype is built. A dedicated trajectory planning strategy based on a virtual center of motion is proposed, and an experimental evaluation with a challenging pick-and-place task is carried out.