A robotic end-effector to provide an anthropomorphic hand with a dorsal actuation system. The hand has a substantially planar palm and fingers extending from the palm and capable of flexion and extension relative to the palm. The dorsal actuation system is supported on the palm and fingers, with actuators positioned at a dorsal side of the palm and links positioned at a dorsal side of the fingers.

A robotic end-effector to provide both magnetic and mechanical finger grip. The end-effector has one or more magnets coupled to a palm, each of the one or more magnets having a magnet face to magnetically attach to a ferromagnetic object. The magnet face(s) define(s) a magnetic engagement surface with the magnet and the palm disposed on a proximal side of the magnetic engagement surface. A finger is pivotally coupled to the palm to grip the ferromagnetic object or an other object. The finger has a deployed configuration in which the finger is disposed distally with respect to the magnetic engagement surface and opposes the palm or the magnet face to grip the ferromagnetic object or the other object. The finger has a retracted configuration in which the finger is disposed proximally with respect to the magnetic engagement surface along with the magnet and the palm, and in which the magnetic face forms an outermost contact surface.

A robotic end-effector to provide conformal object interaction. The end-effector has at least one finger with an inner portion or engaging side and one or more degrees of freedom. A jamming conformal pad is on the inner portion of the at least one finger. The jamming conformal pad has a compliant configuration in which the jamming conformal pad is compliant and configured to distribute across a surface of an object and, if contoured, infiltrate into any variations (e.g., indentations) in the surface, defining a conformal engaging surface configured to match and mate with the surface. The jamming conformal pad has a stiff configuration in which the jamming conformal pad is stiff or relatively stiff as compared to the jamming conformal pad in the compliant configuration, and which substantially maintains a shape of the conformal engaging surface.

A palm-type mechanical gripper with variable-position and rotatable fingers and a dual-drive crank-slider parallel mechanism is provided with a crank-slider mechanism on the left side, which is an active driving structure and is driven by two stepping motors to respectively generate angular displacement of cranks and to change lengths of connecting rods, and a crank-slider mechanism on the right side, which is a driven mechanism and is driven at a constant speed by a pair of gears. The mechanical gripper is provided with three plate spring fingers, wherein two fingers are respectively installed on the connecting rods on left and right sides, and under the cooperative effect of the two stepping motors, the eccentricities of the cranks, the positions and angles of the two fingers respectively on the two connecting rods and the position of the other fixed finger can be changed through manual adjustment.

A sandwich stacker for grasping, rotating and stacking one half of a bisected sandwich on the other half. The stacker includes a half-sandwich gripper. A selectively actuable rotator is coupled to the gripper. The gripper is adapted to releasably hold a first half-sandwich of a bisected sandwich. The rotator selectively rotates the gripper about a first axis of rotation for stacking the first half-sandwich on the other half of the sandwich. The stacker is adapted to be coupled to a positioning device, such as a robotic arm. The rotator may be mounted on the stacker or on the positioning device. The first axis of rotation may be through a center of mass of the first half-sandwich when held by the gripper, or through a cut-line bisecting the bisected sandwich when the first half-sandwich is first held by the gripper.

A robotic constructing system based on a cable-driven robot for constructing a structure formed by objects such as bricks is provided. The process of laying the bricks is performed by the cable-driven robot autonomously. The bricks are provided to the robotic constructing system by an external conveyor and a robot arm of the robotic constructing system is configured to pick up the bricks. The robot arm is then configured to place the bricks in a position to receive an adhesive from an adhesive dispenser of the robotic constructing system and further to load the bricks onto a linear rail. The linear rail can be configured to place the bricks within the proximity of the cable-driven robot. The cable-driven robot can be configured to pick up the bricks and lay the bricks in the designated position of a three-dimensional space.

An end effector for use and connection to a robot arm of a robotic surgical system, wherein the end effector is controlled and/or articulated by at least one cable extending from a respective motor of a control device of the robot surgical system, is provided. The end effector includes a jaw assembly defining a longitudinal axis and including a pair of jaws. Each jaw includes a proximal portion pivotally connected to the distal hub assembly; and a distal portion extending distally of the proximal portion thereof. The end effector additionally includes an actuation cable having a distal end operatively connected to the pair of jaws and a proximal end operatively connected to the at least one motor. In use, axial translation of the actuation cable results in one of an opening and a closing of the jaw assembly.

A workpiece gripping hand includes a first movable member and a second movable member which cooperate with each other to grip an object, a first drive unit which linearly moves the first movable member, a support unit which rotatably supports the second movable member, a link member which is linked to the first movable member and the second movable member, and which rotates the second movable member by transmitting a linear motion of the first movable member to the second movable member, and a second drive unit which moves the support unit to change a position of a center of rotation of the second movable member.

A single robot of a two-lane bin packing system has an end of arm tool (EOAT) that interfaces with two infeed lines and two bins on an ongoing basis so that the robot can pick a group of bags from a first bag group staging area on the first infeed line while a group of bags is being formed in a second bag group staging area by the second infeed line. In addition, by interfacing with two separate bins, one bin can be filled while another, full bin is being replaced with an empty bin. The EOAT thus operates constantly. The bag groups can be formed in layers by discharging bags on a reciprocating shuttle of a pick table assembly.

The proximal phalanx of an underactuated mechanical finger includes a cam fixed on a linkage. Upon actuation, the linkage rotates the cam, which then drives a cam follower, which then drives an extensible part in the distal phalanx to extend the length of the finger, and therefore compensate the finger's height loss that would otherwise occur in the absence of the extensible part.