US 2022/0184812 A1Published application

Robot Gripper, and Method for Operating a Robot Gripper

AssigneeFranka Emika GmbH

InventorsAndreas Spenninger, Tim Rokahr

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Abstract

A robot gripper includes: a drive unit to drive a powertrain with active elements, wherein each element has a working region arranged in a body-fixed manner relative to the robot gripper, a respective element being moveable in and capable of reaching the working region; a control unit to control the drive unit; and a sensor system connected to the control unit to ascertain forces/moments applied externally to individual elements, the control unit configured such that collision monitoring is capable of being carried out for the elements, and when a collision is detected for an element, the drive unit is actuated according to a specified operation, including: providing a defined region within the working region for the elements, and collision monitoring for the elements only when the elements are located outside the assigned region, and deactivating collision monitoring when the elements are located at least partly within the assigned region.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method of operating a robot gripper, wherein the robot gripper comprises:

at least one drive unit AE to drive a powertrain AS with a number N of active elements WEn wherein each active element WEn has a working region ABn arranged in a body-fixed manner relative to the robot gripper, a respective active element WEn being moveable in and capable of reaching the working region;
a control unit to control the at least one drive unit AE;
and
a sensor system connected to the control unit to ascertain forces/moments Fext,WEn(t), where n=1, 2, . . . , N and N≥1, applied externally to individual active elements WEn;
wherein the control unit is designed and configured such that a collision monitoring is capable of being carried out for the active elements WEn, and that in an event of a detected collision event for an active element WEn, the drive unit AE is actuated according to a specified operation, the method comprising:
providing in each case a defined region Bn within the respective working region ABn for the active elements WEn;
and
carrying out the collision monitoring for the active elements WEn only when the respective active elements WEn are located outside of the assigned region Bn, and deactivating the collision monitoring for the active elements WEn when the respective active elements WEn are located at least partly within the assigned region Bn.

5 more elements

A robot gripper comprising:

at least one drive unit AE to drive a powertrain AS with a number N of active elements WEn, wherein the active elements WEn each have working regions ABn arranged in a body-fixed manner relative to the robot gripper, the active elements WEn being moveable in and capable of reaching the working regions;
a control unit to control the at least one drive unit AE in closed loop and open loop manner;
and
a sensor system connected to the control unit to ascertain forces/moments Fext,WEn(t), where n=1, 2, . . . , N and N≥1, applied externally to the individual active elements WEn;
wherein the control unit is designed and configured such that:
a collision monitoring is capable of being carried out for the active elements WEn;
the collision monitoring for the active elements WEn is carried out only when the respective active elements WEn are located outside of a specified assigned region Bn located within the working region ABn;
the collision monitoring for the active elements WEn is deactivated, when the respective active elements WEn are located at least partially within the assigned region Bn;
and
in an event of a detected collision event for an active element WEn, the drive unit is actuated according to a specified operation.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.