Deformable Gripper Mechanism with 1 D.O.F

-Introduction of the Passive Volume Adjustable Mechanism-

Abstract

This paper describes the morphing omnidirectional gripper which is able to grasp various objects with the torus balloon mechanism. The deformable part of the gripper changes its shape by covering all direction of objects and makes the contacting area higher. In order to keep the high grasping force, proposed gripper does not need any additional energy thanks to the jamming effect. The design of the actual prototype model with 1 D.O.F mechanism is shown and built. In addition, the usage of functional fluids for the morphing part is proposed. The basic performance of the passive volume adjustable mechanism has been observed.