Feasibility of soft gripper for industrial application

• Main Author: Lew, Benjamin Tee Hane
• Other Authors: Low Kin Huat
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Robots; Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Prototyping
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167722
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

With the rise in automation and use of robot arms in industry today, the use-cases for robotics grows in-tandem. New technologies continue to be developed to further enhance the capabilities of robots. An example would be soft grippers, which allow the robot arms to better handle fragile objects. The purpose of this Final Year Project is to firstly design and fabricate a working soft gripper prototype and secondly evaluate the feasibility of using soft grippers for industrial purposes. Soft grippers were fabricated using three different types of silicone rubbers, all with varying properties such as tensile strength and viscosity, with the fingers having different operating air pressures between 20kPa-120kPa. They were then tested for their gripping capabilities via different means of testing. The feasibility study included looking at current applications of soft grippers, identifying new use-cases for soft grippers and using simulation software to evaluate the effectiveness of using a soft gripper, while keeping in mind regulatory requirements and cost considerations for implementation. The project will cover the topics in the following order: literature review, simulation of usecases, soft gripper fabrication, gripper testing, feasibility study, conclusion and potential improvements through future work. Some engineering principles and programmes used in this project include software simulation using Visual Components, CAD modelling, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using ANSYS and 3D printing for prototyping. Towards the end of the project, a soft gripper was fabricated that could successfully grasp a variety of objects, with possible use-cases identified for implementation. The project was completed in collaboration with Mr. Chandrasekaran Vignesh Subramaniam.