US 5,178,431 AGranted

Double-V block fingers with cruciform recess

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

InventorGeorge M. Voellmer

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Abstract

In a robot having a gripper including a pair of fingers and a drive motor for driving the fingers toward and away from one another while the fingers remain parallel to each other, the fingers consist of finger pads, which interface with a handle on an object to be grasped, and a shank, which attaches the fingers to the robot gripper. The double-V finger has two orthogonal V-grooves forming in the center of the finger pads a recessed cruciform. The double-V finger is used with a handle on the object to be grasped which is the negative of the finger pads. The handle face consists of v-shaped pads capped with a rectangular cruciform. As the gripper is brought into place near the handle, the finger pads are lined up facing the handle pads. When the finger pad and the handle pad are in proper alignment, the rectangular ridges on the handle fall inside the rectangular grooves on the finger, and the grip is complete.

Claims4

Dependent claims

In a robotic system having a gripper to grip an object to be moved including a pair of fingers and a drive means for driving the fingers toward and away from one another while said fingers remain parallel to each other, each of said fingers comprises:

a lower portion comprising a shank for mounting said finger to said gripper;
an upper portion affixed to said lower portion and having a plurality of finger pads thereon;
said plurality of finger pads comprising pairs of surfaces forming outwardly pointed surface pairs and thereby forming v-shaped finger pads on said upper portion of said finger;
said plurality of finger pads having eight said pairs of surfaces thereby forming four outwardly pointed surface pairs and thereby forming two orthogonal v-shaped finger pads on said upper portion of said finger;
two recessed grooves on said upper portion orthogonal to one another thereby forming a recessed cruciform at the center of said upper portion of said finger;
and
said object to be moved having a pair of complementary surfaces to mate with said upper portion of said pair of fingers, each said surface comprising a like plurality of surface pads, complementary in shape to said finger pads, to mate with said plurality of finger pads and at least one protruding ridge to mate with said at least one recessed groove on said upper portion of said finger.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.