Germany
Asked — Edited

Sensible Gripper

I would like to have a claw or similar with an adjustable force, that does not try to crush whatever it should pick up. Does something like this exist already?

Of several approaches the following one looks most promising to me:

The claws are not immediately moved by an servo, as is, instead a servo stretches a spring connected to the claws. The applied force is measured by a strain gauge/sensor, or simply by measuring the motor current. With an self-locking gear mechanism no current is drawn while something is picked up, only while picking or releasing an object. In the "open" position the servo will not only release the spring, but also should open the claw.


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#1  

This is an area of hobby robotics that needs more how to projects and examples for people to see. Most people don't add sensors to their grippers....that's just an observation, not a helpful answer to your questions, sorry.

#2  

Trossenrobotics.com sells various thin film sensors you can use to measure force and touch.

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Germany
#3  

The electronic part is not a problem for me, but the mechanics is :-(

I envisage a community project, resulting in a ready-to-use EZ-Bit.

Another EZ-Bit idea is a vacuum gripper, for manipulation of small or light weight parts, which I need for my jigsaw puzzle assistant. For this project I choose an Roli for the platform, now the question is how to add further parts from my Fischertechnik kits. A redesign into EZ-Bits looks quite promising to me, so that everybody can use such add-ons, without diving into related hard- and software details.