A low-cost underactuated compliant gripper with multifunctional jaws for precision manipulation

Precision manipulation tasks often require the use of compliant grippers to handle small and delicate objects accurately. This paper proposes a novel low-cost underactuated compliant gripper with integrated position and force sensors for precision manipulation. The gripper has a millimeter-scale grasping range and can adapt to objects of varying sizes and shapes. This is made possible by a flexure motion transmission mechanism that can undergo significant deformation, an underactuated seesaw flexure mechanism, and a pair of multifunctional jaws. Analytical models based on the pseudo-rigid-body approach are developed to analyze the kinematic, static, and dynamic characteristics of the gripper design. Finite element simulations are conducted to investigate the static and dynamic performance of the gripper. The gripper prototype is fabricated using 3D printing technology for a series of experimental tests. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the developed gripper has excellent motion tracking capabilities and high motion and force resolutions, enabling precise and accurate manipulation tasks. Furthermore, the gripper is capable of successfully grasping objects of different sizes and shapes through parallel and enveloping grasps. [Display omitted] •A novel low-cost underactuated compliant gripper is proposed for precision manipulation.•A pair of multifunctional jaws is designed for both parallel and enveloping grasps.•The grasping performance of the compliant gripper is investigated experimentally.•A large grasping range with high displacement and force resolutions is obtained.