Design, Model Analysis and Experimental Investigation of Modular Soft Pneumatic Gripper Equipped With Multi‐Configurable Functionality and Adjustable Effective Length

ABSTRACT Soft grippers are flexible and capable of adapting themselves to various environments during grasping operations. At present, most soft pneumatic grippers operate in just one grasping mode, restricting their ability to adapt to various objects. This paper introduces a soft pneumatic gripper with four fingers that incorporates modular multiple grasping configurations. The gripper's flexible construction allows it to actively expand or contract to fit irregularly shaped objects of various sizes. The design mechanism allows the enclosing diameter to expand to 89 to 175 mm, and its inner conventional secondary gripper can function from 0 to 30 mm, also acting as a secondary support like the human palm curve during grasping. Thus, the gripper can handle 0–200 mm diameter objects. Integrating rotating and sliding motion mechanisms automates gripper posture during manipulation. The modular design makes it easy to attach a vacuum gripper. A machine learning‐based data‐driven control strategy is used to identify objects, select the proper grasping force and improve gripping stability using a closed‐loop PID‐based adaptive control strategy for firm grasping of the object. Additionally, mathematical and kinematic models determined the soft actuator's motion range. Thus, the suggested multi‐configurable gripper can automatically modify its gripping configuration to fit spherical, cubical, cylindrical, and oval objects, from tiny screws and A4 paper with a thickness of 1 mm to large boxes (400 × 300 × 150 mm) and can hold up to 4 kg weight easily. This investigation aims to enhance the adaptability and gripping stability of soft pneumatic grippers. Experimental results validate the variable structure mechanism's efficiency. Furthermore, the suggested soft robotic system is inexpensive and simple to build, showing a high potential for practical applications.