A gripper for industrial manipulators comprising a body, jaws constrained to the body and activable to hold and release a piece, an actuator of the jaws and a sensor configured to detect the presence of a piece between said jaws, is described. Advantageously, the sensor is not positioned between the jaws, in the space intended to accommodate the piece to be held, but is functionally interposed between the actuator and one of the jaws.

A method for detecting the presence of a piece between the jaws of an industrial manipulator gripper, the method providing a sensor to be used to detect the position of a jaw with respect to the actuator of the gripper.

Provided are a robot hand which may be detached by a simpler mechanism, and a robot including the robot hand. The robot hand includes: a gripping part configured to grip a target object; and a mounting part configured to mount the gripping part to a mounted part of a robot, wherein the gripping part may be further configured to operate in a first movement region to grip the target object, and a second movement region to be removed from the mounted part, and wherein the mounting part is engaged with the mounted part in the first movement region, and the mounting part is removed from the mounted part in the second movement region.

The present invention concerns an apparatus (100) for transferring a vial (200) from a first station (301) to a second station (302), comprising a stock (101) of vials in said first station, a mobile arm (1) provided with at least three gripping elements (2a-2d) movable between one another in a controlled way at least between a first and a second position, wherein the free ends of at least part of said gripping elements (2a-2d) have a magnet (5), and wherein the area of the polygon (P) having as vertexes said free ends in said first position is smaller than the area of the polygon (P) having as vertexes said free ends in said second position.

The present invention relates to a gripper device for gripping lids of laboratory vessels. The gripper device comprises a gripper unit with a main body, to which two gripper levers are each pivotably fastened by one end to a pivoting joint in each case. A gripper jaw is formed at the end of each gripper lever remote from the respective pivoting joint, such that the gripper jaws are arranged facing one another. A guiding element is provided which is movably mounted on the main body and two inner and outer guiding faces are formed on the guiding element or on the gripper levers respectively. The gripper levers or the guiding element each have a counter-guiding element which is arranged between one of the inner and one of the outer guiding faces, so that when the guiding element is moved, the gripper levers with their gripper jaws are pivoted apart or pressed together.

A chuck apparatus includes a pair of grip members driven by a piston via a pair of levers, and the levers are rotatably supported by a body via lever shafts. A lever shaft protrudes from the attachment surface of the body to the transport device, and positioning with respect to the transport device is performed by using the protruding portion.

A finger includes a pair of overhanging portions that project out laterally from a main body portion. Outer peripheral surfaces of the overhanging portions are made up from five surfaces including upper surfaces, side surfaces, lower surfaces, first end surfaces, and second end surfaces. Crowning is applied to the intersections between these surfaces.

A robotic gripping device includes a base part attached to a tip of a wrist of a robot; finger parts, at least one of which is movably supported on the base part so that the finger parts can move toward and away from each other; and a driving mechanism that drives the finger parts. In at least one of the finger parts, flexibility of at least a gripping surface is switchable.

A system and method for gripping a cylindrical object. The system including: a housing; a plurality of gripping arms in the housing, the gripping arms in pairs each on an opposite side of a centerline plane from another; and a driving wedge in the housing and configured such that movement of the driving wedge moves each pair of gripping arms towards or away from each other while remaining equidistant from the centerline plane. The method including: opening the plurality of gripping arms against a bias by sliding a wedge in a first direction to slide the plurality of gripping arms apart while maintaining an equal predetermined distance from a part alignment position; placing a cylindrical body between the plurality of gripping arms; and closing the plurality of gripping arms by sliding the wedge in an opposite direction to allow the biasing force to close the gripping arms.

An air chuck includes: a finger support part including a pair of fingers and a pair of lock shafts; a chuck main body part including an operation mechanism operable to open and close the fingers; and linking mechanisms that detachably link the finger support part to the chuck main body part. Each of the linking mechanisms causes the corresponding lock shaft to shift to a non-lock position so as to render the pair of fingers capable of being opened and closed when the finger support part is linked to the chuck main body part. Each of the linking mechanisms causes the corresponding lock shaft to shift to a lock position and locks the pair of fingers so as to render the pair of fingers incapable of being opened and closed when the finger support part is detached from the chuck main body part.

An air chuck includes: a finger support part including a pair of fingers; a chuck main body part including an operation mechanism operable to open and close the pair of fingers; and linking mechanisms that detachably link the finger support part to the chuck main body part. The linking mechanisms each include: a linking shaft that extends from the finger support part; a shaft insertion hole formed in a body of the chuck main body part; a catch body that becomes elastically caught on a catch surface of the linking shaft when the linking shaft is inserted into the shaft insertion hole; and a delinking member that is manually operated so as to release the catch body caught on the catch surface when the finger support part is detached from the chuck main body part.