• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Your Membership
    • Edit Your Profile
  • Services
    • Advertising
    • Case studies
    • Design
    • Email marketing
    • Lead generation
    • Magazine
    • Press releases
    • Publishing
    • Sponsored posts
    • Webcasting
    • Webinars
    • White papers
    • Writing
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Cart
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
  • Events

Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

  • News
  • Features
  • Video
  • Webinars
  • White papers
  • Press releases
  • Featured companies
    • AMD Xilinx
    • BlueBotics
    • Elite Robot
    • RGo Robotics
    • SICK Sensor Intelligence
    • Vicor Power

Washington university develops 3D-printed robotic gripper that can pick up anything, no matter what its geometry

July 29, 2022 by David Edwards Leave a Comment

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, car manufacturing companies such as Ford quickly shifted their production focus from automobiles to masks and ventilators.

To make this switch possible, these companies relied on people working on an assembly line. It would have been too challenging for a robot to make this transition because robots are tied to their usual tasks.

Theoretically, a robot could pick up almost anything if its grippers could be swapped out for each task. To keep costs down, these grippers could be passive, meaning grippers pick up objects without changing shape, similar to how the tongs on a forklift work.

A University of Washington team created a new tool that can design a 3D-printable passive gripper and calculate the best path to pick up an object. The team tested this system on a suite of 22 objects – including a 3D-printed bunny, a doorstop-shaped wedge, a tennis ball and a drill.

The designed grippers and paths were successful for 20 of the objects. Two of these were the wedge and a pyramid shape with a curved keyhole. Both shapes are challenging for multiple types of grippers to pick up.

The team will present these findings August 11 at SIGGRAPH 2022.

Senior author Adriana Schulz, a UW assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, says: “We still produce most of our items with assembly lines, which are really great but also very rigid. The pandemic showed us that we need to have a way to easily repurpose these production lines.

“Our idea is to create custom tooling for these manufacturing lines. That gives us a very simple robot that can do one task with a specific gripper. And then when I change the task, I just replace the gripper.”

Passive grippers can’t adjust to fit the object they’re picking up, so traditionally, objects have been designed to match a specific gripper.

Co-author Jeffrey Lipton, UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering, says: “The most successful passive gripper in the world is the tongs on a forklift. But the trade-off is that forklift tongs only work well with specific shapes, such as pallets, which means anything you want to grip needs to be on a pallet.

“Here we’re saying, ‘OK, we don’t want to predefine the geometry of the passive gripper’. Instead, we want to take the geometry of any object and design a gripper.”

For any given object, there are many possibilities for what its gripper could look like. In addition, the gripper’s shape is linked to the path the robot arm takes to pick up the object.

If designed incorrectly, a gripper could crash into the object en route to picking it up. To address this challenge, the researchers had a few key insights.

Lead author Milin Kodnongbua, who completed this research as a UW undergraduate student in the Allen School, says: “The points where the gripper makes contact with the object are essential for maintaining the object’s stability in the grasp. We call this set of points the ‘grasp configuration.

“Also, the gripper must contact the object at those given points, and the gripper must be a single solid object connecting the contact points to the robot arm. We can search for an insert trajectory that satisfies these requirements.”

When designing a new gripper and trajectory, the team starts by providing the computer with a 3D model of the object and its orientation in space — how it would be presented on a conveyor belt, for example.

Kodnongbua says: “First our algorithm generates possible grasp configurations and ranks them based on stability and some other metrics.

“Then it takes the best option and co-optimizes to find if an insert trajectory is possible. If it cannot find one, then it goes to the next grasp configuration on the list and tries to do the co-optimization again.”

Once the computer has found a good match, it outputs two sets of instructions: one for a 3D printer to create the gripper and one with the trajectory for the robot arm once the gripper is printed and attached.

The team chose a variety of objects to test the power of the method, including some from a data set of objects that are the standard for testing a robot’s ability to do manipulation tasks.

Co-author Ian Good, a UW doctoral student in the mechanical engineering department, says: “We also designed objects that would be challenging for traditional grasping robots, such as objects with very shallow angles or objects with internal grasping — where you have to pick them up with the insertion of a key.”

The researchers performed 10 test pickups with 22 shapes. For 16 shapes, all 10 pickups were successful. While most shapes had at least one successful pickup, two did not. These failures resulted from issues with the 3D models of the objects that were given to the computer.

For one — a bowl — the model described the sides of the bowl as thinner than they were. For the other — an object that looks like a cup with an egg-shaped handle — the model did not have its correct orientation.

The algorithm developed the same gripping strategies for similarly shaped objects, even without any human intervention. The researchers hope that this means they will be able to create passive grippers that could pick up a class of objects, instead of having to have a unique gripper for each object.

One limitation of this method is that passive grippers can’t be designed to pick up all objects. While it’s easier to pick up objects that vary in width or have protruding edges, objects with uniformly smooth surfaces, such as a water bottle or a box, are tough to grasp without any moving parts.

Still, the researchers were encouraged to see the algorithm do so well, especially with some of the more difficult shapes, such as a column with a keyhole at the top.

Good says: “The path that our algorithm came up with for that one is a rapid acceleration down to where it gets really close to the object. It looked like it was going to smash into the object, and I thought, ‘Oh no. What if we didn’t calibrate it right?’

“And then of course it gets incredibly close and then picks it up perfectly. It was this awe-inspiring moment, an extreme roller coaster of emotion.”

Yu Lou, who completed this research as a master’s student in the Allen School, is also a co-author on this paper. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and a grant from the Murdock Charitable Trust. The team has also submitted a patent application: 63/339,284.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Skype
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Pocket

You might also like…

Filed Under: Features, Science Tagged With: designed, grasp, gripper, grippers, object, objects, passive, pick, robot, shapes, team

Join the Robotics & Automation News community

Reader Interactions

You must log in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest articles

  • Fox Guest Posting: The Best Service Providers for Your Blogging Needs
  • 16+ Best Business Card Templates for Google Docs (Word) & Slides
  • Choosing real estate in Istanbul for investment
  • Why is Competition Good for Business?
  • How to Enhance Cyber Security Awareness for Remote Teams (5 Tips)
  • Key Information About Scheduling Apps for Businesses
  • 5 most popular DeFi coins and how to invest in them
  • What determines apartment prices in Dubai?
  • Hydraulic Log Splitter Maintenance Tips
  • Flexiv partners with Handplus Robotics to offer new robotic solutions

Most Read

  • 8 Industries Benefiting from Artificial Intelligence Software Right Now
    8 Industries Benefiting from Artificial Intelligence Software Right Now
  • Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
    Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
  • Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
    Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
  • Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
    Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
  • Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
    Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
  • The Best Mechanical Engineering Design Software in 2022
    The Best Mechanical Engineering Design Software in 2022
  • Wood that’s twice as expensive as gold? Really?
    Wood that’s twice as expensive as gold? Really?
  • Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
    Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
  • How to Know if Your iPhone is Being Tracked? Check This!
    How to Know if Your iPhone is Being Tracked? Check This!
  • How to Enhance Cyber Security Awareness for Remote Teams (5 Tips)
    How to Enhance Cyber Security Awareness for Remote Teams (5 Tips)

Overused words

ai applications automated automation automotive autonomous business china companies company control customers data design development digital electric global industrial industry logistics machine manufacturing market mobile platform process production robot robotic robotics robots safety software solution solutions system systems technologies technology time vehicle vehicles warehouse work

Secondary Sidebar

Latest news

  • Fox Guest Posting: The Best Service Providers for Your Blogging Needs
  • 16+ Best Business Card Templates for Google Docs (Word) & Slides
  • Choosing real estate in Istanbul for investment
  • Why is Competition Good for Business?
  • How to Enhance Cyber Security Awareness for Remote Teams (5 Tips)
  • Key Information About Scheduling Apps for Businesses
  • 5 most popular DeFi coins and how to invest in them
  • What determines apartment prices in Dubai?
  • Hydraulic Log Splitter Maintenance Tips
  • Flexiv partners with Handplus Robotics to offer new robotic solutions

Footer

We are…

Robotics and Automation News was established in May, 2015, and is now one of the most widely-read websites in its category.

Please consider supporting us by becoming a paying subscriber, or through advertising and sponsorships, or by purchasing products and services through our shop – or a combination of all of the above.

Thank you.

Independent

Archivists

July 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jun   Aug »

Complex

Old-skool

This website and its associated magazine, and weekly newsletter, are all produced by a small team of experienced journalists and media professionals.

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact us at any of the email addresses on our contact page.

We’d be happy to hear from you, and will always reply as soon as possible.

Future-facing

Free, fair and legal

We support the principles of net neutrality and equal opportunities.

Member of The Internet Defense League

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT