Metamaterial-based soft grippers for harvesting fragile crops
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Robot-assisted harvesting of delicate fruits is a technological challenge due to the contradictory requirements on robotic grippers that must deliver conformal grasping and versatile plucking without damaging the crops. To address this problem, we propose a robotic gripper with two extended fingers and a removable metamaterial layer, the topological structure of which is optimized for a proper balance between stiff and soft behavior and advanced conformability to diverse fruit shapes. We prove the advanced grasping functionality of the gripper numerically and experimentally by handling truss tomatoes.
Institution: University of Groningen
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4403211244