The mechanical and control system design of a dexterous robotic gripper

The design and development of dexterous robotic end effectors has been an active research area for a long while. This paper reviews the design and construction of a versatile robotic gripper used to grasp objects of arbitrary shape, size and weight. This is achieved through a mechanical design that incorporates multiple fingers and multiple joints per finger, through the installation of proximity and force sensors on the gripper, and through the employment of an innovative and practical control system architecture for the gripper components. The gripper is installed on a standard six degree-of-freedom industrial robot, and the gripper and robot control programs are integrated in a manner that allows easy application of the gripper in an industrial pick-and-place operation where the characteristics of the object can vary or are unknown.