Robotic gripper with seal detection
AssigneeBoston Dynamics, Inc.
InventorsJoshua Timothy Geating, Christopher Everett Thorne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Some robotic arms may include vacuum-based grippers. Detecting the seal quality between each vacuum assembly of the gripper and a grasped object may enable reactivation of some vacuum assemblies, thereby improving the grasp. One embodiment of a method may include activating each of a plurality of vacuum assemblies of a robotic gripper by supplying a vacuum to each vacuum assembly, determining, for each of the activated vacuum assemblies, a first respective seal quality of the vacuum assembly with a first grasped object, deactivating one or more of the activated vacuum assemblies based, at least in part, on the first respective seal qualities, and reactivating each of the deactivated vacuum assemblies within a reactivation interval.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- activating a set of vacuum assemblies of a robotic gripper by supplying a vacuum to each vacuum assembly in the set;
- determining, for each of the activated vacuum assemblies in the set, a first respective seal quality of the vacuum assembly with a deformable surface of a first object;
- deactivating one or more of the activated vacuum assemblies in the set based, at least in part, on the one or more first respective seal qualities;
- and
- reactivating one or more of the deactivated vacuum assemblies to attempt to seal with the deformable surface.
A mobile robotic device, comprising:
- a robotic gripper comprising a set of vacuum assemblies and at least one pressure sensor associated with each vacuum assembly in the set;
- and
- at least one computer processor programmed to:
- activate each vacuum assembly in the set by supplying a vacuum to the vacuum assembly;
- determine, for each of the activated vacuum assemblies in the set, a first respective seal quality of the vacuum assembly with a deformable surface of a first object;
- deactivate one or more of the activated vacuum assemblies based, at least in part, on the one or more first respective seal qualities;
- and
- reactivate one or more of the deactivated vacuum assemblies to attempt to seal with the deformable surface.
A method of grasping an object, the method comprising:
- activating a set of vacuum assemblies of a robotic gripper;
- sealing at least one of the activated vacuum assemblies in the set with a deformable surface of the object;
- deactivating one or more of the activated vacuum assemblies in the set;
- reactivating one or more of the deactivated vacuum assemblies to attempt to seal with the deformable surface;
- and
- sealing at least one of the one or more reactivated vacuum assemblies with the deformable surface of the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.