Design and Development of a Soft Pneumatic Gripper for Precise Grasping of Fragile Objects

Soft robotics is an emerging subfield of robotics that studies the design and fabrication of automated systems composed of flexible materials. They present a potential solution to protect fragile objects from high stress induced by rigid grippers. This paper proposed a 3D printed soft pneumatic gripper adapted to precisely grasp delicate and fragile objects such as those encountered in the marine, electronic, and food industry. The gripper was based on the principle of a fluidic elastomer actuator and consisted of two soft TPU fingers and a rigid base with an Arduino-driven flexing sensor to measure the curvature of the fingers during grasping and a force sensor that enables precise measurement and adjustment of gripping force, ensuring the objects were held securely without damage. The design and fabrication were cost-efficient and engineered to not affect the continuous flexing of the soft fingers, addressing key challenges grasping with precision and efficiency. The relationship between the sensor outputs and pneumatic inputs were analyzed through graphs from conducted experimental tests.