Design Summary with Thesis Draft 1

The article “This Soft Robotic Gripper Can Screw in Your Light Bulbs for You” (2017) introduces a revolutionary robotic arm and its features. Designed and built by the engineering team from the university, is a robotic gripper capable, but not limited to controlling the object it is handling. According to Michael T. Trolley, it is designed to emulate a biological hand. One of the main features was the ability to manipulate and model objects. Consisting of three fingers, each has a total of “three soft flexible pneumatic chambers”, making manipulation possible. The article also states that each finger is covered with a “smart, sensing skin” embedded with “conducting nanotube” sensors, which reacts to the change of conductivity caused by flexing of fingers, effectively generating data of the object it holds. The data generated is then passed to a control board where the 3D modelling of the object is done through the combination of 2D image slices.

While the author agrees to a certain extent that this is a unique invention comprising of three elements: twisting, sensing and modelling presented as one, there are other options in the market comparable to. With a similar approach of biological limbs as a primary design aspect, the design in the article “Dynamic modelling and control of an octopus inspired multiple continuum arm robot (Kang, Branson, Guglielmino & Caldwell, 2012)” is based on an octopus arm. Utilizing “20 segments of parallel actuation”, continuum arms can achieve multiple degrees of freedom making it “capable of generating archetypal locomotion patterns such as crawling and swimming”. With the ability to perform such complex motions, achieving the ‘twisting and ‘sensing’ capabilities the soft robotic gripper has would not be a problem.

Similarly, the article titled “Humanoid Robot Hand and its Applied Research (Kawasaki & Tetsuya, 2018)” introduced an end effector designed to be capable of replacing a human hand. The five fingered humanoid hand that is capable of dexterous manipulation of objects, is driven by built-in servomotors. It also comprises of multiple joints with 16 DOF, making manipulation possible. Each finger also has built-in tactile and force sensors which aids in manipulating an object. The article also states that its grasping strategy which is power and precision grasp, can handle and manipulated objects ranging from a tennis ball to a surgical knife. In conclusion, the ability to perform tasks with such precision, the humanoid robot hand would too, effectively achieve the ‘twisting’ and ‘sensing’ capabilities the soft robotic gripper possess.

While these inventions have capabilities that are comparable to that of the soft robotic gripper, they still differ in only one aspect. The ability to craft a 3D model with the sensor data inputs. Thus, the soft robotic gripper is still unique in the current world of robotics given that it has a function most end effectors doesn’t have.

References

Kang, R., Branson, D. T., Gulielmino, E., & Caldwell, D. G. (2012). Dynamic modelling and control of an octopus inspired multiple continuum arm robot . Computer & Mathematics with Applications, 64(5), 1004–1016. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898122112002234

Kawasaki & Tetsuya (2019). Humanoid Robot Hand and its Applied Research. Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics. 31. 16-26. 10.20965/jrm.2019.p0016. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331232366_Humanoid_Robot_Hand_and_its_Applied_Research