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DexGrip: Multi-modal Soft Gripper with Dexterous Grasping and In-hand Manipulation Capacity

Xing Wang, Liam Horrigan, Josh Pinskier, Ge Shi, Vinoth Viswanathan, Lois Liow, Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay, Jen Jen Chung, David Howard

TL;DR

The DexGrip is presented, a multi-modal soft robotic gripper for in-hand grasping, reorientation and manipulation, enabling soft, stable, and dexterous grasping and manipulation without ever needing to re-grasp an object.

Abstract

The ability of robotic grippers to not only grasp but also re-position and re-orient objects in-hand is crucial for achieving versatile, general-purpose manipulation. While recent advances in soft robotic grasping has greatly improved grasp quality and stability, their manipulation capabilities remain under-explored. This paper presents the DexGrip, a multi-modal soft robotic gripper for in-hand grasping, re-orientation and manipulation. DexGrip features a 3 Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) active suction palm and 3 active (rotating) grasping surfaces, enabling soft, stable, and dexterous grasping and manipulation without ever needing to re-grasp an object. Uniquely, these features enable complete 360 degree rotation in all three principal axes. We experimentally demonstrate these capabilities across a diverse set of objects and tasks. DexGrip successfully grasped, re-positioned, and re-oriented objects with widely varying stiffnesses, sizes, weights, and surface textures; and effectively manipulated objects that presented significant challenges for existing robotic grippers.

DexGrip: Multi-modal Soft Gripper with Dexterous Grasping and In-hand Manipulation Capacity

TL;DR

The DexGrip is presented, a multi-modal soft robotic gripper for in-hand grasping, reorientation and manipulation, enabling soft, stable, and dexterous grasping and manipulation without ever needing to re-grasp an object.

Abstract

The ability of robotic grippers to not only grasp but also re-position and re-orient objects in-hand is crucial for achieving versatile, general-purpose manipulation. While recent advances in soft robotic grasping has greatly improved grasp quality and stability, their manipulation capabilities remain under-explored. This paper presents the DexGrip, a multi-modal soft robotic gripper for in-hand grasping, re-orientation and manipulation. DexGrip features a 3 Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) active suction palm and 3 active (rotating) grasping surfaces, enabling soft, stable, and dexterous grasping and manipulation without ever needing to re-grasp an object. Uniquely, these features enable complete 360 degree rotation in all three principal axes. We experimentally demonstrate these capabilities across a diverse set of objects and tasks. DexGrip successfully grasped, re-positioned, and re-oriented objects with widely varying stiffnesses, sizes, weights, and surface textures; and effectively manipulated objects that presented significant challenges for existing robotic grippers.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 13 sections, 4 equations, 5 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Methdology
  4. Structural Design
  5. Subsystem Development
  6. Compliant robotic finger
  7. Active telescopic palm with adhesion
  8. Experimental Results & Discussion
  9. Fin Ray Stiffness & Manipulation Testing
  10. Active Palm for Re-orientation and Re-position
  11. Grasping & Manipulation
  12. Collaborative Motion
  13. Conclusion

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Detailed schematics for the proposed DexGrip design
  • Figure 2: (a) Suction adhesion under three loading cases, (b) Stiffness evaluate for 3 Fin Ray fingers with tip and middle contacts respectively, (c) Single active surface to move/rotate a can against the table.
  • Figure 3: (a) Experimental platform (b) zoom in view for DexGrip grasping a weight box, (c) object dataset with detailed dimensions and weights. Note fruits are fake artifacts.
  • Figure 4: Active palm executing a sequence of motions on a peach: extend, rotate, and withdraw.
  • Figure 5: (a) Functional grasping of multiple distinct objects: pear, strawberry, peach, lime, rock, grapes, (b)The gripper demonstrates the manipulation of a pear through pivot rotation: from a pinch to power grasping, (c) grasping and re-position of a deformable EGAD object through all-belt translation, (d) manipulating a Rubik's cube.