Design of Telescopic Soft Gripper for Mangosteen Harvesting

This research presents a telescopic soft gripper designed to assist farmers in the harvesting of mangosteens. Subsequent to the outbreak of a pandemic, like the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), producers are encountering a workforce shortage during the harvesting of mangosteen. The labor crisis is currently becoming more acute, but the competition for mangosteen exports is increasing, requiring the expansion of mangosteen agricultural areas, which will ultimately give rise to a labor shortage. The gripper is fabricated from hyperelastic material, a material that offers flexibility and softness, making it ideal for delicate objects. Conventional soft grippers lack the telescopic design, which enables extension and retraction, allowing for the handling of various object sizes. The gripper's design optimization involved the evaluation of nine models with different internal inclinations and material thicknesses. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was employed to simulate the deformation and stress responses. The optimized model, in comparison to nine other models, possesses a thickness of 2.25 mm and an internal inclination of 10 degrees, facilitating high deformation with acceptable stress. It has been demonstrated that the gripper can deform up to 132 mm, a finding that has been validated through experimentation. The experimental validation was conducted to corroborate these findings, demonstrating the gripper's capacity to securely grasp objects with diameters ranging from 50 mm to 70 mm and weights up to 22 N. Furthermore, the gripper's efficacy was assessed in a mangosteen harvesting scenario, where it demonstrated a capability to successfully harvest the fruit within a span of two seconds. The gripper's design is characterized by its compactness, low production cost, and ease of use, rendering it highly practical for agricultural applications in confined spaces. The telescopic soft gripper under consideration offers a versatile and scalable solution for harvesting a wide range of crops of varying sizes, positioning it as a valuable tool for future agricultural automation.