Design and Analysis of an Origami-Inspired Deployable Metamorphic Robotic Grasper

—In this paper, an origami-inspired deployable metamorphic robotic grasper (ODMRG) with three limbs is presented, which can be used to grasp the large-scale unknown objects. First, using thickness-accommodation technique, a thick-origami basic module is introduced, and its mobility is also calculated by applying screw theory. The single limb consisting of four motion modules and one fixed module is illustrated. There are two metamorphic positions that enable this limb to have four different configurations from the stored state to grasping state. The metamorphic process and mobility analysis of such limb are provided in this paper. Then, the assembly of 3-limbs grasper is described, after which the grasper can be stored tightly and deployed compactly. In addition, the discussion about deploy/fold ratio of this grasper is given, which indicates that the deploy/fold ratio of this grasper can be increased by adding the number of modules. Finally, the workspace and dexterity of the grasper is presented. The shape adaptability in grasping are also tested, which shows that the gasper can adapt to the large-scale objects in different shapes.