Easily Fabricatable Shell Gripper for Packaging Multiple Cucumbers Simultaneously

Soft robot grippers have been investigated for handling different types of objects and have been applied in various applications. However, the fabrication of soft robots usually involves molding and demolding processes and it is time consuming. In this paper, we propose a pneumatic shell gripper which can be easily fabricated without demolding process and its thickness was minimized for the purpose of packaging multiple cucumbers simultaneously. The shell gripper includes multiple gripping units and each unit consists of two flat fingers configured in a parallel pattern. Each finger has a hybrid structure combining a rigid shell and a soft membrane. The membrane can be pneumatically inflated and therefore can be used to grasp objects. Inflation tests on the hybrid finger showed that the new fabrication method can provide similar inflated deformation to the fingers compared with the conventional method. Moreover, the new method yields less individual differences among fingers due to the less manual process. Durability was tested for the new fabrication method and the finger is not ruptured after 100,000 circles. Finally, tests on packaging multiple cucumbers were conducted and results demonstrated the ability and advantages of the shell gripper.