Système intégré d'obturation automatique de préhenseurs à attraction pneumatique

Abstract

Vacuum prehensile systems using a set of suction cups offer many advantages. However, an important problem appears when there is no matter in front of some suction cups. Indeed the flow rate sucked up in vain induces a considerable waste of energy and the vacuum level may become insufficient for gripping. Therefore it is very useful to disconnect all the suction cups that are not being used for gripping. In this paper, we present a new solution using the sucked up flow rate to detect and to drive the closing of unused suction cups.