Development of a Hybrid Gripper With Jamming Module Using Small-scale Pneumatic Pump

Abstract

Recent changes in the climate environment and human errors have led to various disaster situations, creating a range of collapsed terrains. For situation assessment and rescue operations in such disaster sites, mobile robots capable of removing debris while conducting exploration are necessary. This paper proposes a compact hybrid gripper that utilizes an under-actuation mechanism with a wire-driven method for the hard gripper and incorporates a jamming module with a small-scale pneumatic pump system for debris removal in collapsed terrains. The proposed hybrid gripper combines the strong grasping force and precise control capabilities of hard grippers with the flexibility and adaptability of soft grippers, enabling it to handle unstructured objects of various shapes and sizes. Through various grasping experiments, the hybrid gripper demonstrated a 48.61% increase in payload compared to using the hard gripper alone and proved its capability to perform missions such as opening and closing doors, as well as removing obstacles in confined spaces. The experimental results confirmed that the proposed hybrid gripper is suitable for deployment in mobile robots for debris removal, rescue, and reconnaissance in disaster environments. © ICROS, KIEE and Springer 2024.