Grippers get sensitive skin

Grip­pers are one of the most com­mon­ly used end effec­tors in the man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­try. They are used for sev­er­al dif­fer­ent mate­r­i­al han­dling appli­ca­tions, includ­ing pal­letiz­ing, pick and place, and pack­ag­ing. And now, some robot­ic grip­pers could be get­ting a lit­tle on the sen­si­tive side by adding grip­per sensors.

Accord­ing to an arti­cle from robot​ic​strends​.com, researchers are begin­ning to apply arti­fi­cial skins and sen­sors to robots to fur­ther improve their accu­ra­cy and pre­ci­sion in these areas. These grip­ping sen­sors could also mean a bet­ter abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate and work with oth­er robots and humans.

This new ​“skin,” deemed ROBOSKIN, allows the robot­ic grip­per sen­sors to actu­al­ly give robots the arti­fi­cial sense of touch. ROBOSKIN, which is mod­eled after actu­al human skin, has arti­fi­cial nerves that can feel changes in envi­ron­ment like hot to cold or smooth to rough.

Cur­rent­ly, this skin is still under devel­op­ment. It is cur­rent­ly being used in humanoid robots like Kas­par, a robot that helps autis­tic chil­dren. It is the­o­rized that by giv­ing a robot this sense of touch, it can assim­i­late and learn behavior.

The arti­cle stat­ed that though the tac­tile robot sen­sors used in ROBOSKIN are not a new inno­va­tion, the unique design of the skin could solve the prob­lem of giv­ing robots more sen­so­ry perception.

While ROBOSKIN might not be avail­able on the mar­ket for a while, Robots​.com has sev­er­al oth­er robot grip­pers that can han­dle the stress of dif­fer­ent work envi­ron­ments and dif­fer­ent tol­er­ances for a vari­ety of mate­ri­als. These motion and vision sen­sors are fea­tures that can be added to your robot sys­tem to help fur­ther improve your application.

Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor for sev­er­al end effec­tors, has a large cat­a­log of grip­pers with sen­sors avail­able for pur­chase, includ­ing ser­vo, bag and vac­u­um grip­pers. Robots​.com can match you with the right robot and sys­tem for your applications.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.