US 7,734,376 B2Granted

Hand and handling robot

AssigneeFanuc Corporation

InventorsAtsushi Watanabe, Kazunori Ban, Taro Arimatsu, Masaru Oda, Yoshinori Ochiishi, Hiroaki Kubota

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Abstract

A hand as an end effector. The hand includes a base, a hook element associated with the base and capable of hooking and lifting an object, a holding element associated with the base and cooperating with the hook element to hold the object therebetween, and a drive section causing a relative movement between the hook element and the holding element. For example, the hook element is arranged movably in a direction toward and away from the holding element on the base, and the drive section drives the hook element. Alternatively, the holding element is arranged movably in a direction toward and away from the hook element on the base, and the drive section drives the holding element. A handling robot includes an arm and the above-described hand attached to the arm.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A hand as an end effector, comprising:

a base;
a hook element associated with said base, and capable of hooking and lifting an object;
a holding element associated with said base, and cooperating with said hook element to hold said object therebetween;
and
a drive section causing a relative linear movement between said hook element and said holding element;
wherein said hook element includes an end adapted to hook an object thereon, and allows the object to be automatically displaced into a balanced orientation, due to gravity, with a center of gravity of the object being located substantially vertically beneath said hook element, when said hook element hooks on and lifts the object without an operation of said drive section;
and
wherein said hook element and said holding element are adapted to be relatively shifted in a direction toward each other by an operation of said drive section, and hold the object between said end of said hook element and said holding element under a pressure exerted by said drive section.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.