Soft Robotic Gripper For Optimizing Picking & Placing In Food & Fruit Industry

Abstract

Industrial robots are an integral part of automated processes in the present era. End effector is part of the robot which grasps the object and limits the type and nature of object which can be picked. Food handling can be an impossible task for conventional end effectors as they are unable to adapt to soft, delicate & uneven surfaces. Soft end effectors on the other hand are inspired from nature and offer an alternative solution to grasping of soft delicate objects. They can work in unstructured environments and can handle variety of objects without the need for reprogramming & redesigning if the objects to grasped are changed. In this project we have developed a soft robotic gripper made of combination of soft end effectors based on a class of hyper elastic materials. For the soft end effector two different designs were made and their analysis and testing were performed. The designs were modeled in Solidworks, and analysis was carried out using ANSYS workbench. After analysis the designs were fabricated then tested and then the soft robotic gripper was assembled. We have also developed the actuation system for passing pressurized air through the end effector. Arduino UNO was utilized for the actuation system