An attachment module constructed to enable a vehicle charging robot to attach to a vehicle and to thereafter insert its charging connector into the vehicle's charging socket. Once the vehicle is charged and the charging connector is disconnected from the charging socket, the attachment module is further constructed to enable the robot to detach from the vehicle.

A soft robot hand includes a palm, a first fabric-reinforced textile actuator coupled to the palm, and a second fabric-reinforced textile actuator coupled to the palm. The first actuator is moveable relative to the palm between a collapsed position and an inflated position to approximate a joint in a first human finger. The second actuator is spaced apart from the first actuator. The second actuator is moveable relative to the palm between a collapsed position and an inflated position to approximate a joint in a second human finger.

Methods of assembling a controller for a commissioning device are provided. A method includes extending a delivery table in a first horizontal direction, the delivery table having a storage end and a retrieval end, disposing two elongated clamping jaws above the delivery table, extending, in a second horizontal direction perpendicular to the first horizontal direction, a first guide and a second guide that are parallel and spaced from one another in the first horizontal direction, coupling at least four clamping jaw carriages to the first and second guides, wherein at least two clamping jaw carriages separated from one another in the first horizontal direction are coupled to a single clamping jaw, respectively, and coupling at least four drive elements to a clamping jaw drive unit.

An apparatus for controlling an end-effector assembly is provided. The apparatus includes a elongated element configured to engage the end-effector assembly and a drive assembly. A first motion transfer mechanism is disposed at an end of the elongated element. The first motion transfer mechanism is configured to transfer a rotational motion of the elongated element to a motion of the end-effector assembly. A second motion transfer mechanism is disposed at the second end of the elongated element. The second motion transfer mechanism is configured to transfer a motion of the drive assembly to the rotational motion of the elongated element.

A grip device is provided. A grip device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a first finger; a second finger facing the first finger; a first link part including a first guide slot and supporting the first finger; a second link part supporting the second finger and including a second guide slot, intersecting the first link part; a hinge configured to move inside the first guide slot and second guide slot and connecting the first link part and the second link part at an intersection point of the first link part and second link part; a first actuator configured to adjust a distance between the first finger and second finger by moving the first link part and/or the second link part; and a second actuator configured to move the hinge inside the first guide slot and second guide slot.

An autonomous robot for harvesting produce from a plant include a base, an arm coupled to the base, and an end-effector coupled to the arm. The end-effector includes one or more grippers, each having a first cutter, second cutter, and a compliant member between the first cutter and the second cutter. The first cutter is configured to cut a stem of the produce at a first location. The second cutter is configured to cut the stem of the produce at a second location. The compliant member is configured to plastically deform to hold the stem of the produce.

A robot manipulator includes: an arm body; a wrist effector, connected to the arm body; a multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) connecting device, rotatably connected to the wrist effector; and a grabber, connected to the multi-DOF connecting device, wherein the multi-DOF connecting device is configured to receive a power output by the wrist effector and drive the grabber to rotate.

Safety is one of the most important factors in the robot interaction with unknown and dynamic environments. Recent studies have shown that the use of compliant components as a solution to the safety issue, especially in the physical human-robot interaction. To overcome performance degradation caused by including compliant elements into the systems, variable stiffness approaches have been introduced at the cost of an extra actuator. A variable stiffness gripper is presented. Embodiments of the disclosed gripper may have, for example, with two parallel fingers (jaws). Compliance of the system may be generated by using magnets as the nonlinear springs. Based on the presented design, the position and stiffness level of the fingers can be adjusted simultaneously by changing the air gap between the magnets.

An electric gripper is disclosed and includes a carrier, an actuator, two dual-lever assemblies and an angle sensor. The actuator is disposed on the carrier and includes a sliding portion. The two dual-lever assemblies are disposed on the carrier and located at two opposite lateral sides of the sliding portion. Each of the two dual-lever assemblies includes a driving lever, a limiting lever and a gripping piece. The driving levers are staggered to each other. The limiting levers are staggered to each other. When the sliding portion slides a first distance in the first direction, the sliding portion drives the driving levers to rotate an angle, and the gripping pieces move toward each other to displace a second distance in a second direction. The angle sensor is disposed on the carrier and configured to measure the angle, to correspond to the first distance and the second distance.

End effectors and methods for gripping a curvilinear sheet of material are disclosed herein. The curvilinear sheet of material defines a first sheet side having a curvilinear first side topography and a second sheet side having a curvilinear second side topography. The end effector includes a negative mating shaped first sheet-engaging surface configured to operatively support the first sheet side and having a curvilinear first sheet-engaging surface topography that corresponds to the curvilinear first side topography. The end effector also includes a second sheet-engaging surface configured to operatively support the second sheet side and having a curvilinear appropriately mating negative shaped second sheet-engaging surface topography that corresponds to the curvilinear second side topography. The end effector further includes an actuation mechanism configured to selectively transition the end effector between an open orientation and a gripping (converging) orientation. The methods include methods of utilizing the end effectors.