Impact of material characteristics of cloth on the gripping force and performance of finger grippers

With the rising demand for automation and robotization in the textile industry, a variety of gripping solutions for textile materials has been developed in recent years. The increase in finger grippers is noticeable, however, a difference in the applicability and the holding force of finger grippers can be observed. Understanding the correlation between characteristics of the picked up textile materials, the style, coating and material of the gripper and the repeatability of the pick up process and the gripping force is crucial for their successful industrial integration. In this paper, the correlations between the properties of the different textiles and the gripping performance of a finger gripper are investigated. Bending stiffness, lateral compressibility, friction parameters and other textile characteristics are compared to the gripping force of the gripper with the selected textiles. The most important parameters are selected by principal component analysis and investigated for correlation.