Students: Alek Brown, Logan Hyler, Dalton Buchman, Kylen Moni, Bryan Lantzy, Jarod Kiraly
Advisor: Dr. Mizanoor Rahman
Grippers are devices that enable robots to pick up and hold objects. It is a part of a robot, but it is itself a mechanical component. The goal of the project is to design, manufacture, and evaluate a robot gripper with a novel gripping mechanism using 3D printing technology. Motion is usually done with a motor, but for this project we will have a mechanism to move the grippers manually. The design must prioritize various factors such as weight, compactness, strength, cost, and manufacturability. We created the design in SolidWorks and performed strain and stress analysis with these criteria in mind.
If a motor is used, the motor would spin a threaded bolt where the two gripping hands are connected. The motor would spin until it is fitted onto the object tightly, then it will stop rotating, and the threads will help the grippers lock onto the object. In this design, we manually spin the threaded bolt using the star-designed crank at one end of the device. Only the hand to the left on the design above moves while the one on the right stays fixed. The bolt rotating causes the hand on the left to move depending on the direction of rotation. The guide rails are used to keep the plate from rotating when the threads are turned and have an even retrieval. The SolidWorks model was 3D printed and the prototype was evaluated experimentally.
Keywords: Robot, gripper, design, 3D printing, evaluation