Robotic grippers that gently handle objects of various shapes are required for various applications these days. Conventional finger-shaped grippers are multifunctional and can grip various objects; however, grasping an item without slippage requires planning the positioning of the fingers at appropriate locations on the item. Hence, a ring-shaped soft gripper that coils itself around objects like a rubber band is suggested in this paper. The proposed gripper comprises a soft tube containing laminated sponges interleaved with plastic sheets. Evacuation of the air within the sponges shrinks them and decreases the diameter of the ring, thereby allowing the gripper to firmly hold objects. The gripper is therefore flexible enough to coil around objects of various shapes without gaps. Furthermore, the rigidity of the compressed sponges inside the gripper prevents wobbling of the gripped objects. The air within the gripper can be used to adjust the gripping force. The minimum diameter of the gripper after evacuating the air within the sponges is approximately one-fourth of the original diameter. Thus, the proposed gripper is expected to be used in various applications as it automatically conforms to the different shapes while simply gripping objects gently and securely.

中文翻译：

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真空驱动的橡皮筋夹持器

如今，在各种应用中都需要能够轻柔地处理各种形状物体的机器人抓手。常规的手指形抓手具有多功能性，可以抓取各种物体。但是，要抓住物品而不会打滑，则需要规划手指在物品上适当位置的位置。因此，本文提出了一种环形的软抓手，它可以像橡皮筋一样缠绕在物体周围。所提出的夹持器包括一个软管，该软管包含与塑料片交错的层压海绵。抽空海绵内的空气会使海绵收缩并减小环的直径，从而使抓取器牢固地固定物品。因此，抓具具有足够的柔韧性，可以无间隙地缠绕各种形状的物体。此外，夹爪内部压缩海绵的刚度可防止被夹物体晃动。抓取器内的空气可用于调节抓取力。排空海绵中的空气后，夹具的最小直径约为原始直径的四分之一。因此，由于所提出的夹持器自动适应不同的形状，同时简单，轻柔且牢固地夹持物体，因此有望用于各种应用中。