Development of 3D printed gripper using compliant mechanism

Abstract

A soft gripper is a type of robotic designed to mimic the characteristic of human hand. It is different from conventional hard gripper; soft gripper consists of flexible structure that enabled to grasp the object gently and conform to the shape of target project. In order to operate a soft gripper, it consists of 2 parts: gripper’s finger and actuator. A soft gripper is made up of soft material such as elastomer, while actuator normally is combined of mechanical design and hard material. In this project, a compliant mechanism is used to actuate gripper as it offers flexibility and adaptability which allowing gripper to handle objects of varying shapes and sizes more effectively. Their compliant nature also helps to prevent damage to delicate objects and improves overall grasping success rates. Compared to other actuation such as pneumatic actuation, the process and design consideration required to involve different areas of engineer, it takes a lot of time and cost to manufacture one soft gripper. The objective of the final year report is to develop the compliant mechanism to soft gripper in 3D printing. The application of this gripper project is used into robotic arm to grasp the electronic waste (E-waste) such as battery and light bulb with varying size and shape for safety of waste segregation process. To carry out the project, CAD software is used to model the compliance mechanism design and simulation for stress analysis. A various type of compliant mechanism, gripper design and material selection related to 3D printing will be studied. This report will review the introduction of the topic, literature review of compliance gripper & 3D printing method, research methodology of the compliant gripper design & material selection. The details and requirement of the application will be discussed in research methodology. Lastly is result & discussion for the finalised design and prototype.