SBIR Phase II: An Innovative Robotic Jamming Gripper

Empire Robotics, Inc., Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will continue the development of an innovative robotic gripping technology that leverages the unique jamming behavior of granular materials to enable a device that can passively conform to objects of varying shape and then vacuum harden to grip them rigidly. These ?jamming grippers? are a unique solution for the agile gripping and manipulation of arbitrary objects with a single gripper -- a need that occurs in manufacturing robotics, prosthetics, and increasingly in home and healthcare robotics. Preliminary results published in top scientific journals successfully implemented this technique in a laboratory setting. The Phase I and Phase IB efforts further demonstrated the technical and market feasibility of a commercial product based on this technology. In Phase II, the research objective are: 1) to answer the critical remaining research questions that stand between the prototypes and a commercial product, 2) to demonstrate product feasibility by transitioning the technology from the prototype stage to a first Alpha product, and 3) to expand the capabilities of this technology by developing and testing prototypes for adjacent market applications. Successful completion of this project will position the team for sustainable sales of a suite of related products. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be realized through technological contributions in the area of robotics. The first target market will be industrial manufacturing, focusing on tasks where variations in object shape are prevalent (e.g. food handling, pharmaceuticals, bin picking, and kitting/assembly). Alternative robotic gripping solutions range (in increasing price) from vacuum suction cups, to traditional jawed grippers, to customized or specialty grippers, and finally to general purpose multi-fingered hands. The simplicity of the proposed jamming gripper can potentially enable two orders of magnitude price reduction over current grippers that achieve similar performance. This gripper is also uniquely positioned to open the door to a previously untapped niche market ? simple movement tasks in manufacturing that must currently be performed by human laborers due to lower volumes or frequent line changes. The flexibility and low cost of a jamming gripper makes it a more agile and reusable component, and this type of solution is the key element that is missing for bringing robotic automation to many smaller scale manufacturers in the U.S.