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.
Claims20
A robotic gripper comprising:
- at least two gripper fingers, each gripper finger comprising:
- a body portion;
- a rotatable contact 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 relative to the body portion when engaged.
A method of operating a robotic gripper comprising:
- gripping an article between at least two rotatable contacts of a gripper in a first orientation;
- rotating the at least two rotatable contacts to pivot the article into a second orientation;
- and
- preventing rotation of the at least two rotatable contacts to maintain the article in the second orientation.
A method of operating a robotic gripper comprising:
- gripping an article between at least two rotatable contacts of a gripper in a first orientation, wherein gripping the article includes applying a gripping force to the article via the at least two rotatable contacts of the gripper;
- and
- selectively applying a braking force to the contact pads to selectively maintain the orientation of each rotatable contact relative to the associated gripper, wherein the braking force is independent of the gripping force.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.