Soft robotic tentacle gripper

A gripper device, comprising:

• tentacles, each tentacle includes lower and upper members connected by a connector, each member has guide discs attached along the member to maintain spacing between the guide discs, and each guide disc includes a ring with passthrough holes, and a spacer located in a donut hole of the ring that has passthrough holes, while the ring and spacer passthrough holes collectively define cable pathways, such that the passthrough holes for each ring are equally spaced around a periphery of the ring, wherein the connector includes a center thru-hole and transfer channels in a center portion, each transfer channel includes a geometric feature having an entry aperture with a cable entry path tangential to an inner surface of the center thru-hole, and an exit aperture with a cable exit path parallel to a center axis of the connector;
• cables having proximal ends coupled to actuators outside of the lower member that extend from the actuators through apertures of a controllable palm baseplate located at a proximal end of the lower member, such that a set of lower cables extend through the lower ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal lower guide disc, and a set of upper cables extend through the lower spacer passthrough holes of the lower guide rings, through the transfer channels to the upper ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal upper guide ring, wherein an end cap is attached to the distal end of the upper member;
• and
• a partial glove device attached to the tentacles and the palm base plate, such that the partial glove device includes stiffening support rib portions axially aligned with some lower member guide rings.

A soft robotic gripper system, comprising:

• tentacles, each tentacle includes lower and upper members connected by a connector, each member has guide discs attached along the member to maintain spacing between the guide discs, and each guide disc includes a ring with passthrough holes, and a spacer located in a donut hole of the ring that has passthrough holes, while the ring and spacer passthrough holes collectively define cable pathways, wherein the connector includes a center thru-hole and transfer channels in a center portion each transfer channel includes a geometric feature having an entry aperture with a cable entry path tangential to an inner surface of the center thru-hole, and an exit aperture with a cable exit path parallel to a center axis of the connector;
• and
• cables having proximal ends coupled to actuators outside of the lower member that extend from the actuators through apertures of a controllable palm baseplate located at a proximal end of the lower member, such that a set of lower cables extend through the lower ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal lower guide disc, and a set of upper cables extend through the lower spacer passthrough holes of the lower guide rings, through the transfer channels to the upper ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal upper guide ring, wherein an end cap is attached to the distal end of the upper member;
• a centralized control system configured to:
• receive tentacle data and sensor data from a transceiver;
• compare stored object configurations to obtain a corresponding stored object configuration using the sensor data, and compare stored commands to obtain stored sets of commands corresponding to the stored object configuration;
• compare stored tentacle actions associated with the stored object configuration to obtain a corresponding stored set of tentacle actions using the received tentacle data, and compare the stored sets of commands to obtain a corresponding first set of commands, if the tentacle actions from the tentacle data do not correspond to the stored object configuration, then select a second set of commands;
• and
• generate a sequence of control signals that cause motors for each tentacle of the tentacles to apply a sequence of tensions to transmission systems to each tentacle, to move a target object, according to the selected set of commands associated.

A soft robotic gripper system, comprising:

• tentacles, each tentacle includes lower and upper members connected by a connector, each member has guide discs attached along the member to maintain spacing between the guide discs, and each guide disc includes a ring with passthrough holes, and a spacer located in a donut hole of the ring that has passthrough holes, while the ring and spacer passthrough holes collectively define cable pathways;
• a connector includes a center thru-hole and transfer channels in a center portion each transfer channel includes a geometric feature having an entry aperture with a cable entry path tangential to an inner surface of the center thru-hole, and an exit aperture with a cable exit path parallel to a center axis of the connector;
• cables having proximal ends coupled to actuators outside of the lower member that extend from the actuators through apertures of a controllable palm baseplate located at a proximal end of the lower member, such that a set of lower cables extend through the lower ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal lower guide disc, and a set of upper cables extend through the lower spacer passthrough holes of the lower guide rings, through the transfer channels to the upper ring passthrough holes to couple to a distal upper guide ring, wherein an end cap is attached to the distal end of the upper member;
• a centralized control system configured to:
• receive tentacle data and sensor data from a transceiver;
• compare stored object configurations to obtain a corresponding stored object configuration using the sensor data, and compare stored commands to obtain stored sets of commands corresponding to the stored object configuration;
• compare stored tentacle actions associated with the stored object configuration to obtain a corresponding stored set of tentacle actions using the received tentacle data, and compare the stored sets of commands to obtain a corresponding first set of commands, if the tentacle actions from the tentacle data do not correspond to the stored object configuration, then select a second set of commands, wherein the selected set of commands includes a sequence of predetermined torques to be applied to one or more joints or flexural joints along with corresponding tensions to apply to a plurality of transmission systems of each tentacle of the tentacles, such that each transmission system has a first end connected to a motor and a second end connected to a joint or a flexural joint;
• and
• generate a sequence of control signals that cause motors for each tentacle of the tentacles to apply a sequence of tensions to transmission systems to each tentacle, to move a target object, according to the selected set of commands associated.