TW201720604A - Adaptable gripping apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An adaptable gripping apparatus comprises a frame unit, and a plurality of gripping units. Every gripping unit includes a base, and a claw which is flexible and is pivoted on said base. Due to flexible nature of the claws, slight deformation will occur upon contact with an object, which in turn increases the contact area, resulting in an increase of friction and stability. Said claws are able to adaptively adjust the force of gripping to avoid damage to the object.

Description

Adaptive clamping device

The present invention relates to a gripping device, and more particularly to an adaptive gripping device having a simple structure and high versatility.

With the increase of labor costs and the development of automatic control technology, the robotic arm that contributes to the automation of the factory production line has gradually become a product of concern to the market. Therefore, the development of a high-degree-of-free jaw device to make the robot arm more widely used has become one of the key development directions of the current robot arm.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a conventional two-claw type jaw device 1 is coupled to the second gear mechanism 11 and the two-bar linkage mechanism 12 to drive a first jaw 13 and a second jaw 14 respectively. The first jaw 13 and the second jaw 14 can clamp the object to be gripped. Although the jaw device 1 is capable of gripping objects of different sizes through the control of the gear mechanisms 11 and the linkage mechanisms 12, the gear mechanisms 11 and the linkage mechanisms 12 are arranged to The complexity is increased to increase the cost, and the first jaw 13 and the second jaw 14 are relatively bulky.

In addition, since the first jaw 13 and the second jaw 14 are in contact with the horizontal plane and sandwich the object, the contact area with the object is compared. Small, the force must be increased to improve the gripping stability, and the first jaw 13 and the second jaw 14 are generally made of a rigid material, so it is not suitable for articles that are easily deformed or fragile, such as cake or pine. Food items such as cakes.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an adaptive gripping device that is simple in construction and that is suitable for articles having large variations in size and vulnerability.

Thus, the adaptive gripping device of the present invention comprises a frame unit and a plurality of gripping units.

Each of the gripping units includes a base disposed on the frame unit, and a jaw pivotally connected to the base and having an elastic and tiltable swing, each of the jaws having a pivoting portion pivotally connected to the base a clamping portion connecting the pivoting portion, a connecting portion connecting the pivoting portion and the clamping portion, and a plurality of opposite ends respectively connecting the clamping portion and the reinforcing portion of the connecting portion.

The pivoting portion, the clamping portion, and the connecting portion cooperate to surround a surrounding space. The reinforcing portions are located within the surrounding space at intervals from each other.

The utility model has the advantages that the jaws are made of an elastic material, so that slight deformation occurs after the object is clamped, so that the contact area between the clamping portion of the jaws and the object increases, thereby increasing the friction force. Increase stability. Since the jaws are deformed after being subjected to a certain force, the clamping force can be adjusted to prevent the force from being excessively damaged and the object is destroyed, so that the precise force control mechanism is not required, thereby reducing the complexity and cost of the mechanism. And can correspond to objects with large variations in the specification or fragile and easy to deform, Highly versatile. These reinforcements can be used to provide support and increase structural toughness.

2‧‧‧Adaptive gripping device

3‧‧‧Frame unit

31‧‧‧Main frame

310‧‧‧Outer Torus

32‧‧‧ linkage mechanism

33‧‧‧ Drives

34‧‧‧First Mount

35‧‧‧Second Mount

4‧‧‧Catch unit

5‧‧‧Base

6‧‧‧Claws

61‧‧‧ pivotal department

62‧‧‧Clamping Department

621‧‧‧Extension

622‧‧‧Contact section

63‧‧‧Connecting Department

631‧‧‧First connection segment

632‧‧‧Second connection

633‧‧‧ third connection

64‧‧‧ Strengthening Department

65‧‧‧ Around the space

7‧‧‧Acoustic

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the embodiments of the drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional two-claw type jaw device; FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating An embodiment of the adaptive gripping device of the present invention, wherein the two jaws are located at a first alignment position; FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating the side view of the embodiment; FIG. 4 and FIG. It is a schematic view showing other aspects of one of the jaws in the embodiment; and FIG. 6 is a front view showing that the two jaws of the embodiment are located at a second arrangement position.

Referring to Figures 2 and 3, an embodiment of the adaptive gripping device 2 of the present invention comprises a frame unit 3 and three gripping units 4 disposed on the frame unit 3.

The frame unit 3 includes a main frame body 31 having an outer ring surface 310, a link mechanism 32 disposed in the main frame body 31, and a main frame body 31 disposed on the main frame body 31 for driving the link mechanism. a driving member 33 of the 32, a first mounting seat 34 disposed on the outer ring surface 310 of the main frame body 31, and a second mounting seat 35 disposed on the outer ring surface 310 of the main frame body 31 (Fig. 2 and only one of them is shown in Figure 3.) In this embodiment, the driving member 33 is a motor and can drive the link mechanism 32 to drive the link mechanism 32. The second mounts 35 move along the outer annulus 310 relative to the first mount 34.

Each of the clamping units 4 includes a base 5 disposed on the frame unit 3, a clamping jaw 6 detachably pivoting the base 5, and a detachable pivoting member disposed on the base 5. Actuator 7 of the jaw 6. In this embodiment, the base 5 of one of the gripping units 4 is disposed on the first mounting base 34, and the bases 5 of the other two gripping units 4 are respectively disposed on the second mounting bases. 35. The jaws 6 are made of an elastic material and are preferably made of corn starch resin (PLA) or ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) when applied to a food process. The actuating members 7 are pneumatic cylinders that can drive the jaws 6 to retract to grip the article.

Each of the clamping jaws 6 has a pivoting portion 61 pivotally connected to the corresponding base 5 and the corresponding actuator member 7 , a clamping portion 62 connecting the pivoting portion 61 , and one end portion respectively connected to the pivoting portion 61 . The clamping portion 62 and the connecting portion 63 located outside the clamping portion 62 and the plurality of opposite ends respectively connect the clamping portion 62 and the reinforcing portion 64 of the connecting portion 63. The pivoting portion 61, the clamping portion 62, and the connecting portion 63 cooperate to surround a surrounding space 65, and the reinforcing portions 64 are located inside the surrounding space 65 at intervals.

The clamping portion 62 has an extending portion 621 connected to the pivoting portion 61 and a contact portion 622 connected to the extending portion 621 and bent relative to the extending portion 621. The connecting portion 63 has a first connecting portion 631 connected to the pivoting portion 61, a second connecting portion 632 connected to the first connecting portion 631 and bent relative to the first connecting portion 631, and two ends respectively a third connecting portion 633 connecting the second connecting portion 632 and the contact portion 622 of the clamping portion 62, The third connecting section 633 is bent relative to the second connecting section 632. In this embodiment, the reinforcing portions 64 may be straight strips as shown in FIG. 3 and connected to the extending portion 621 of the clamping portion 62, and the first and second connecting portions of the connecting portion 63. 631, 632, but as shown in FIG. 4, each reinforcing portion 64 is substantially L-shaped and is angled to provide different supporting characteristics.

It should be particularly noted that, in this embodiment, the pivoting portion 61, the clamping portion 62, and the connecting portion 63 of each of the jaws 6 may be in the form of a unequal-polygon as shown in FIG. However, when the material characteristics of the jaws 6 are comprehensively analyzed, as shown in FIG. 5, the pivoting portion 61, the clamping portion 62, and the connecting portion 63 may be formed in a triangular shape.

The driving member 33 can drive the link mechanism 32 to move the second mounting seat 35 along the outer ring surface 310 of the main frame body 31 relative to the first mounting seat 34. The two clamping jaws 6 disposed on the second mounting seats 35 are converted from a first alignment position as shown in FIG. 2 to the clamping jaws 6 disposed on the first mounting seat 34 as shown in FIG. 6. A second aligned position is shown. When the two clamping jaws 6 on the second mounting seat 35 are located in the first alignment position, the two clamping jaws 6 are parallel to each other and are abutted together as shown in FIG. 2 to form a two-jaw clamping type. Suitable for gripping long or square objects. When the two clamping jaws 6 are located in the second arrangement position, the two clamping jaws 6 are away from each other and are not parallel as shown in FIG. 6, forming a three-jaw clamping type, suitable for clamping a circular or irregular shape. Object.

It should be specially noted that, besides the corresponding two-jaw and three-jaw clamping type, the outer surface 310 of the main frame body 31 can be added as needed. The gripping unit 4 forms a gripping pattern of three or more jaws to improve versatility.

Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 6, the jaws 6 are made of an elastic material and have a hollow structure, so that when the object is gripped and subjected to a certain force, deformation occurs, thereby increasing the contact area with the object. Improve the stability of the clamping system. Since the excess force is transferred to the jaws 6 to cause deformation, it is not necessary to perform too precise force control, and it is only necessary to simply adjust the air pressure of the actuators 7, so that the structural complexity can be reduced. And cost. In addition, the jaws 6 can be converted into two-claw or three-claw type according to different requirements to correspond to different characteristics of the object, and the elastic characteristics of the jaws 6 can be used for gripping and fragile, easy to deform, and size specifications. A food item with a large amount of variation. The jaws 6 can be designed in different shapes and can be replaced according to requirements. Alternatively, the clamping unit 4 can be additionally added to achieve a gripping pattern of three or more jaws, which is high in generality and facilitates modularization.

In summary, the jaws 6 are deformed after being subjected to a certain force, so that the contact area between the jaws 6 and the gripping object is increased to improve the stability, and the gripping force can be adjusted to reduce the complexity of the mechanism and cost. The purpose of the present invention can be achieved by the conversion between the two-jaw and the three-claw to match the objects of different characteristics to improve the versatility.

However, the above is only the embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, and all the equivalent equivalent changes and modifications according to the scope of the patent application and the patent specification of the present invention are still The scope of the invention is covered.

2‧‧‧Adaptive gripping device

3‧‧‧Frame unit

31‧‧‧Main frame

310‧‧‧Outer Torus

33‧‧‧ Drives

34‧‧‧First Mount

35‧‧‧Second Mount

4‧‧‧Catch unit

5‧‧‧Base

6‧‧‧Claws

7‧‧‧Acoustic

Claims (10)

An adaptive gripping device comprises: a frame unit; and a plurality of gripping units, each gripping unit comprising a base disposed on the frame unit, and a pivoting base and resilient and tiltable a swinging jaw, each jaw having a pivoting portion pivotally connected to the base, a clamping portion connecting the pivoting portion, and a connecting portion connecting the pivoting portion and the clamping portion respectively And a plurality of reinforcing portions connected to the clamping portion and the connecting portion respectively, the pivoting portion, the clamping portion, and the connecting portion cooperate to surround a surrounding space, and the reinforcing portions are spaced apart from each other This surrounds the space. The adaptive gripping device of claim 1, wherein the number of the gripping units is three, the frame unit comprises a main frame body, a link mechanism disposed in the main frame body, and one for driving a driving member of the link mechanism, a first mounting seat disposed on the main frame body and provided by one of the clamping units, and two disposed on the main frame body and respectively provided by the other two clamping units a second mounting seat, the link mechanism can drive the second mounting seats to move relative to the first mounting seat, so that the clamping jaws disposed on the second mounting seats are converted from a first alignment position to a first alignment position a second alignment position, wherein the jaws are parallel to each other when in the first alignment position, and the jaws are not parallel when in the second alignment position. The adaptive gripping device of claim 2, wherein the main frame body of the frame unit has an outer ring surface for the first mounting seat and the second mounting seat, and the connecting rod mechanism is driven The second mounts along the The outer annulus moves. The adaptive gripping device of claim 3, wherein the first mount and the second mount of the frame unit are respectively provided for the base of the gripping unit. The adaptive gripping device of claim 1, wherein the clamping portion of each of the jaws has an extension connecting the pivoting portion, and a connecting portion of the extending portion and being bent relative to the extending portion Contact segment. The adaptive gripping device of claim 5, wherein the connecting portion of each of the jaws has a first connecting portion connecting the pivoting portion, a connecting the first connecting portion and being opposite to the first a second connecting section bent by the connecting section, and a third connecting section respectively connecting the second connecting section and the contact section of the clamping portion, the third connecting section being bent relative to the second connecting section . The adaptive gripping device of claim 1, wherein the pivoting portion, the clamping portion, and the connecting portion of each of the jaws form a triangle. The adaptive gripping device of claim 1, wherein each of the reinforcing portions of each of the jaws is sandwiched by an angle. The adaptive gripping device according to claim 1, wherein the material of the jaws of each of the gripping units is one selected from the group consisting of corn starch resin and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. The adaptive gripping device of claim 1, wherein each of the gripping units further comprises an actuating member disposed on the base and capable of driving the jaws to swing obliquely.