Development of a Self-Adaptive Gripper and Implementation of a Gripping Reflex to Increase the Dynamic Payload Capacity

This paper describes the development of a two finger self-adaptive gripper and the implementation of a gripping reflex to increase the payload-to-weight ratio. The self-adaptive finger mechanism is designed in order to grasp objects with parallel and nonparallel gripping surfaces. The kinematic is optimized to gain a suitable force distribution over the gripping surface to provide a maximum holding torque if objects with parallel gripping surfaces have to be manipulated. Depending on dynamic load affecting the gripped object the proposed grasping reflex increases the grip force to guarantee a stable gripping process. The intention for this implementation is the possible usage of a smaller and thereby lighter motor for a given manipulation problem. Normally the motor is chosen due to the nominal performance which has to cover every use case including the dynamic loads, but mostly these dynamic loads arise only temporarily. Experiments prove the eligibility to increase the performance of a gripping system by using the proposed gripping reflex.