• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.817-825
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• 2016

In this paper, we introduce a flexible gripper that we have engineered to precisely pinch in parallel and compliantly grasp objects. As found in most conventional industrial grippers, the parallel pinching property is essential for precise manipulation. On the other hand, the grippers with a flexible structure are more adept at grasping objects with arbitrary shapes and softness. To achieve these disparate properties, we introduce a flexible gripper mechanism composed of multiple flexible beam structures. Utilizing these beam structures, the proposed gripper is able to grasp arbitrarily shaped objects. Additionally, a unique combination of flexible beams enables the gripper to pinch objects using the parallel fingertips for enhanced precision. A detailed description of the proposed mechanism is provided, and an analysis of the strength and stiffness of the fingertip and finger body is presented. The Results section compares the theoretical and experimental analyses and verifies the properties and performance of the proposed gripper.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.24.2-27
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• 1996

This paper is a study on the fuzzy force control of a miniature gripper driven by piezoelectric bimorph actuator. The system is composed of two flexible cantilevers, a stepping motor, a laser displacement transducer and two semiconductor force sensors attached to the beams. Obtained results show that the present artificial finger system works well as a miniature gripper, which produces approximately 0.06N force in the maximum. Further, the fuzzy position/force control algorithm is applied to the soft-handing gripper for stable grasping of a object. It revealed that the fuzzy rule-based controller be efficient controller for the stable drive of the flexible miniature gripper. It also showed that two semiconductor strain gauges located in the flexible beam play an important roles for force control, position control and vibration suppression control.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2014

In this paper, we design a gripping force control system using tactile sensor to prevent slip when gripper tries to grasp and lift an object. We use a flexible tactile sensor for measuring uniplanar pressure on gripper's finger and develop an algorithm to detect the onset of slip using the sensor output. We also use a flexible pressure sensor to measure the normal force. In addition, various signal processing techniques are used to reduce noise included in the sensor output. A 3-finger gripper is used to grasp and lift up a cylindrical object. The tactile sensor is attached on one of fingers, and sends output signals to detect slip. Whenever the sensor signal is similar to the slip pattern, gripper force is increased. In conclusion, this research shows that slip can be detected using the tactile sensor and we can control gripping force to eliminate slip between gripper and object.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2020

In robotic harvesting, a gripper to manipulate the fruits needs to be attached to the robot system. We proposed a flexible robot gripper that can actively respond to the shape of an object such as fruits in the previous work. However, we found that there is a possibility of not being reliably gripped when the object slides during contact with a finger. In this paper, the improved gripper design is proposed to fundamentally solve the problems of the previous gripper. The position of the finger and the maximum closed position are changed, and the design improvement is performed to increase the grip stability by changing the installation angle of the link portion of the finger. Based on the improved design, a modified gripper is fabricated by 3-D printing, and then gripping experiments are performed on spherical object and fruit model object. It is shown that the gripper can stably grip the objects without excessive bending of the finger link of the gripper. The contact pressure between the finger and the surface of the object is measured, and it is verified that it is a sufficiently small pressure that does not cause damage to the fruit. Therefore, the proposed gripper is expected to be successfully applied in harvesting.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.54-62
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• 2021

This study has investigated the 3-D deflection characteristics of a flexible plate levitated by non-contact grippers using SPIV method. The measuring instrument consisted of a flexible plate located under four non-contact grippers and two cameras at the bottom of a transparent acrylic plate. Measurements were made on two materials (PVC and PC) for the plate with 50×50 cm2 area and 1 mm thickness. The deflection characteristics and flatness vary depending on the plate material, the gripper position and the air flow supplied to the gripper. For the material of PVC, the overall defection is convex. As the gripper position goes outward from the plate center, the upmost bending point also moves to the outside of the plate with the flatness increasing. However, the air flow rate does not affect the deflection pattern except for the small increase of flatness. For the material of PC, the shape of deflection changes from convex to concave as the gripper position goes out. The flatness is the highest at the point of transition from convex to concave, but the air flowrate has little effect on the flatness.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.174-184
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• 1997

This paper presents a robust force tracking control of a smart flexible gripper featured by a piezoceramic actuator characterizing its durability and quick response time. A mathematical governing equation for the proposed gripper structure is derived by employing Hamilton's principle and a state space control model is subsequently obtained through model analysis. Uncertain system parameters such as frequency variation are included in the control model. A sliding mode control theory which has inherent robustness to the sys- tem uncertainties is adopted to design a force tracking controller for the piezoceramic actuator. Using out- put information from the tip force sensor, a full-order observer is constructed to estimate state variables of the system. Force tracking performances for desired trajectories represented by sinusoidal and step func- tions are evaluated by undertaking both simulation and experimental works. In addition, in order to illustrate practical feasibility of the proposed method, a two-fingered gripper is constructed and its performance is demonstrated by showing a capability of holding an object.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.439-443
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• 2006

In this paper, a design of milli-gripper using piezoelectric actuator and flexible hinge structure has been suggested, and the dynamic characteristics of the milli-gripper has been analysed and improved. The milli-gripper consists of the operating and amplifier parts, and the perfomance of the gripper be heavily influenced by base excitation disturbances. The dynamic characteristics of milli-gripper has been measured by the FRF based on experimental modal analysis. It has been found by a series of experiments that the performance of the milli gripper using PID control is made a remarkable improvement in terms of gripping forces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a new approach to design and control a smart gripper of robot system. A control method for flexible grasping a object in partially unknown environment was proposed, where a proximate sensor detecting the distance between the fingertip and object was used. Based on the proximate sensor signal the finger motion controller could plan the grasping process divided in three phases. The first step is scanning process which two first joints were moved to mid-position of the detected range by a state-variable feedback position controller, after the scanning was finished. The contact force of fingertip was then controlled using the detection sensor of the servo controller for finger joint control. The proposed grasping planning was tested on rectangular bar.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.688-700
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• 2022

A composite bionic soft gripper integrated with electromagnets and magneto-active elastomers is designed by combining the structure of the human hand and the snake's behavior of enhancing friction by actively adjusting the scales. A silicon-based polymer containing magnetized hard magnetic particles is proposed as a soft finger, and it can be reversibly bent by adjusting the magnetic field. Experiments show that the length, width, and height of rectangular soft fingers and the volume ratio of neodymium-iron-boron have different effects on bending angle. The flexible fingers with 20 vol% are the most efficient, which can bend to 90° when the magnetic field is 22 mT. The flexible gripper with four fingers can pick up 10.51 g of objects at the magnetic field of 105 mT. In addition, this composite bionic soft gripper has excellent magnetron performance, and it can change surface like snakes and operate like human hands. This research may help develop soft devices for magnetic field control and try to provide new solutions for soft grasping.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.44-49
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• 1999

This paper is concerned with the theoretical and experimental study on the force conrtrol of a miniature robotic gripper. The gripper is an uniform flexible cantilever equipped with a distributed set of compact force sensor. As an actuator piezoelectric acturator, piezoelectric acturator is fixed with cupper plate at which the beam is clamped. The mathematical model of the assembled electro-mechaincal system is developed. The force sensor is described by a set of concentrated mass-spring system. The formulated equations of motion are applied to he study of a control problem where the gripper is commanded to grip an object The usefulness of the PID control technique is verified by experiment.