Design of effective suction force sensible vacuum gripper by a 6-axis force sensor

Abstract

This study proposes a vacuum gripper that can measure the effective suction force applied to an object using a 6-axis force sensor. The object falling in a vacuum gripper occurs when a gap between the object and the pad no longer allows the negative pressure in the chamber. This is rephrased as the absence of a compression force between the object and the pad. Therefore, the force distribution that the attached object pushes the pad during suction reflects the external force, i.e. the effective suction force, required to remove the object. To confirm the validity of the developed vacuum gripper, we conducted an experiment where the developed vacuum gripper sucks a flat plate. As a result, we confirmed that the 6-axis force sensor’s signals mean the effective suction force by applying an external force to remove the place.