Design of a soft gripper with a changeable adapter for enhanced grasping and manipulation
Abstract
: Soft grippers utilize compliant materials to achieve adaptable grasping, yet they often face challenges in accommodating objects with widely varying dimensions due to their fixed kinematic structures. This paper presents the design, fabrication, modeling, and control of a novel soft gripper featuring a rigid-flexible coupled variable range adapter. By integrating a motorized crank-slider mechanism with soft pneumatic fingers, the gripper achieves a dynamic volumetric workspace capable of manipulating objects ranging from compact to large geometries. Theoretical modeling and experimental characterization reveal that the adapter serves a dual purpose: it not only expands the effective workspace but also functions as a mechanical force amplifier, capable of exponentially boosting the contact force through kinematic reconfiguration. Furthermore, an intuitive Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) teleoperation strategy is established using wearable flex sensors. This control framework maps human gestures to robotic actuation, leveraging human visual feedback as a high-level perception loop to validate the open-loop response of the soft actuators. Experimental results demonstrate that this integrated system significantly improves adaptability and payload stability for diverse object geometries compared to fixed-base counterparts.