Design of Adaptive Grippers for Fruit-Picking Robots Considering Contact Behavior

Bowei Xie, Mohui Jin (), Jieli Duan, Zewei Li, Weisheng Wang, Mingyu Qu and Zhou Yang ()
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Bowei Xie: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Mohui Jin: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Jieli Duan: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Zewei Li: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Weisheng Wang: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Mingyu Qu: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Zhou Yang: College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: Adaptability to unstructured objects and the avoidance of target damage are critical challenges for flexible grippers in fruit-picking robots. Most existing flexible grippers have many problems in terms of control complexity, stability and cost. This paper proposes a flexible finger design method that considers contact behavior. The new approach incorporates topological design of contact targets and introduces contact stress constraints to directly obtain a flexible finger structure with low contact stress and good adaptability. The study explores the effects of design parameters, including virtual spring stiffness, volume fraction, design domain size, and discretization, on the outcomes of the flexible finger topology optimization. Two flexible finger structures were selected for comparative analysis. The experimental results verified the effectiveness of the design method and the maximum contact stress was reduced by about 70%. An adaptive two-finger gripper was developed. This design allows the gripper to achieve damage-free grasping without additional sensors and control systems. The adaptive and contact performances of the grippers with different driving modes were analyzed. Practical grasping tests were also performed, including evaluation of adaptive performance, stability, and maximum grasping weight. The results indicate that gripper 2 with flexible finger 2 excelled in contact stress and adaptive wrapping, making it well-suited for grasping unstructured and fragile objects. This paper provides valuable insights for the design and application of flexible grippers for picking robots, offering a promising solution to enhance adaptability while minimizing target damage.

Keywords: agricultural engineering; soft grippers design; harvesting robots; contact behavior; fruit picking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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