Robotic grippers
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsNikhil Chavan Dafle, Alberto Rodriguez Garcia, Neel Doshi, Ian Hernand Taylor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robotic gripper may be configured to dexterously manipulate an article. The robotic gripper may include two or more fingers containing one or more rotatable contacts each. The rotatable contact may transition between a rotation mode and a braking mode such that the contacts are free to rotate in the rotation mode and are prevented from being rotated in the braking mode. In some instances, the robotic gripper may make contact with the article via the contact pads. Thus, the robotic gripper may dexterously manipulate the article via the contact pads and brake.
Claims18
A robotic gripper comprising:
- a first gripper finger and a second gripper finger, each of the first and second gripper fingers comprising:
- a body portion;
- a rotatable contact pad configured to contact an article and operatively connected to the body portion;
- and
- a brake configured to selectively maintain a fixed orientation of the rotatable contact pad relative to the body portion when engaged,
- wherein the rotatable contact pad of the first gripper finger and the rotatable contact pad of the second gripper finger are adapted to rotate relative to the first and second gripper fingers about a single common axis of rotation, and wherein the first and second gripper fingers and the brake are configured such that a braking force applied by the brake is independent of a gripping force applied to the article by the first and second gripper fingers.
A method of operating a robotic gripper comprising:
- gripping an article between a first rotatable contact pad and a second rotatable contact pad in a first orientation, wherein the first and second rotatable contact pads are positioned on different gripper fingers of a robotic gripper;
- engaging a brake before gripping the article between the first and second rotatable contact pads;
- rotating the first and second rotatable contact pads relative to the different gripper fingers about a single common axis of rotation to pivot the article into a second orientation;
- and
- preventing rotation of the first and second rotatable contact pads to maintain the article in the second orientation.
A method of operating a robotic gripper comprising:
- gripping an article between a first rotatable contact pad and a second rotatable contact pad of a robotic gripper in a first orientation, wherein gripping the article includes applying a gripping force to the article via the first and second rotatable contact pads, wherein the first and second rotatable contact pads are positioned on different gripper fingers of the robotic gripper and are adapted to rotate relative to the different gripper fingers about a single common axis of rotation;
- and
- selectively applying a braking force to the first and second rotatable contact pads to selectively maintain the orientation of the first and second rotatable contact pads relative to the robotic gripper, wherein the braking force is independent of the gripping force.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.