A robotic end effector and method for use thereof are provided. The robotic end effector can include a rigid base structure (230), a plurality of rigid proximal phalanges (210) connected to the rigid base structure (230), a plurality of rigid distal phalanges (200) connected to the proximal phalanges (210) respectively, and a plurality of bellows (250), wherein one end of a proximal phalange (210) is connected to one end of the base structure (230) by a bellows (250), wherein one end of a distal phalange (200) is connected to a proximal phalange (210) by a bellows (250), and wherein a portion of the base structure (230), each proximal phalange (210), and each distal phalange (200) are covered in silicone rubber. It can achieve a high output force to input pressure ratio, and cost efficiently.

A method of making an actuator having a complex internal shape includes providing a core of a shape that defines an internal cavity of an actuator; molding an actuator around the core, wherein the core occupies the internal cavity of the actuator, the cavity having an opening; generating a pressure differential between an exterior surface of the actuator and the internal cavity of the actuator, wherein the external pressure is less than the internal pressure, to expand the actuator cavity; and removing the core through the opening of the expanded actuator cavity.

Disclosed herein is a shape compliant electroadhesive gripper for picking up an atypical object. The shape compliant electroadhesive gripper comprises a body, and an electroadhesive module disposed on the body and including an electrorheological elastomer, wherein, when a voltage is not applied, a shape of the electroadhesive module is deformed according to a shape of an external object coming into contact with the electroadhesive module, and when the voltage is applied, rigidity of the electrorheological elastomer is increased to maintain the shape of the electroadhesive module, and when the voltage is applied to the electroadhesive module, electroadhesion is made due to an electrostatic force generated between the electrorheological elastomer and the adjacent external object.

An artificial epidermis structure capable of using a gel substance to adjust a frictional property with high precision is provided. When a front surface of a lid member comes into contact with a target object and pressure acts on the lid member, a part of the gel substance can escape into a space that is formed by concave portions on a front surface of a gel substance. Therefore, reduction in a repulsion force of the gel substance is achieved. Accordingly, the pressure can be appropriately transmitted to the gel substance via the lid member, and convex portions of the gel substance can be caused to easily bulge out over the front surface of the lid member via holes of the lid member.

The present invention relates to a cutter replacement robot and its adaptive cutter system for tunnel boring machine and belongs to the field of tunnel construction equipment design. Traditional cutter system adopts multi-wedge fastening mode, and the fasteners are many and separate from each other. It is only suitable for manual disassembly and assembly. So, robot can not disassemble and assemble cutter quickly. For the current cutter weight, the current load-weight ratio of industrial robots can not meet the narrow space inside the cutter head of the TBM, so mature industrial robots can not change the all of cutters. Based on the above situation, according to the internal space structure of the cutter head of the TBM, the invention designs a new type of cutter-changing robot and three type cutter systems to realize the rapid disassembly and assembly of the cutter.

Systems and methods for estimating deformation and field of contact forces are described. A method includes generating a reference configuration including reference points in space. The reference configuration corresponds to an initial shape of a membrane prior to contact with the manipuland. The method further includes receiving raw data from a TOF device. The raw data includes points in space measured by the TOF device and indicating deformation of the membrane due to contact with the manipuland. The method further includes determining deformation of the membrane that best approximates a current configuration in a least squares sense while satisfying a discrete physical model enforced as a linear constraint that corresponds to a linearized physical model of the deformation that is discretized with an FEM, linearizing the relationship, and estimating deformation and field of contact forces by solving a least squares formulation with physical constraints cast as a sparse quadratic program.

A gripping device for gripping an egg tray (3A) having a dimpled structure includes a gripping unit (4) that is movable up and down to engage and grip the egg tray (3A) and move it. The gripping unit comprises (4) at least a pair of opposite grip ping members (42A, 42B) which are movable in opposite directions, substantially transverse to the up and down movement of the unit (4), from a retracted position to an advanced position to grip a dimple (31) of the egg tray (3A), and from the advanced position to the retracted position to release the dimple. Each gripping member (42A, 42B) of said pair has a separate pressure operated actuator (46) operatively connected to it. The actuator (46), upon pressurization, moves the corresponding gripping member (42A, 42B) from the retracted position to the advanced position.

A gripping device includes a bag-shaped gripping body, a plurality of elastic portions, and a shape holding portion. The gripping body includes a palm portion, and a plurality of finger portions protruding from a periphery of the palm portion and configured to fall toward the palm portion by deforming the palm portion in a thickness direction. The plurality of elastic portions is respectively provided in the plurality of finger portions, each of the plurality of elastic portions having a shape of each of the plurality of finger portions. The shape holding portion is provided in the gripping body to prevent contraction of an outer periphery of the palm portion. The shape holding portion includes a guide bore for receiving the palm portion when being deformed, and a curved portion provided on an outer side of a distal end of the shape holding portion in an axial direction of the guide bore. The distal end faces the plurality of finger portions.

A soft composite actuator is described, including a first elastomeric layer; a strain limiting layer; and a first radially constraining layer, wherein the first elastomeric layer is disposed between the first radially constraining layer and the strain limiting layer; and the elastomeric layer, the strain limiting layer, and the radially constraining layer are bonded together to form at least one bladder for holding pressurized fluid. Methods of using and making of the soft composite actuator are described.

The present invention discloses a soft-bodied finger, a soft-bodied gripper and a soft-bodied robot. The soft-bodied finger includes a fingertip (1), a finger junction (2), a flexible joint (3), a fingerboard (4) and a flexible shoulder (5). A plurality of flexible joints (3) and a plurality of flexible shoulders (5) are disposed at intervals on an upper portion of the fingerboard (4), between the fingertip (1) and the finger junction (2). An empty chamber inside the flexible joint (3) is formed as an air bag (31), and an empty chamber inside the flexible shoulder (5) is formed as an air channel communicated with the air bag (31). At least two groups of air channels are disposed in the soft-bodied finger. With the dual-air channel arrangement, the present invention increases the cross-sectional area for air flowing, which can significantly promote the throughput of air inflation/deflation of the air bag in the finger, so as to raise the air inflation/deflation efficiency and improve the response speed of the finger.