Instagrasp

Instagrasp is an entierly 3D printed gripper that can be made on a hobby grade printer. It is based on the Yale OpenHand T42, but is significantly easier and cheaper to assemble. TPU parts replace molded finger parts and threads (tendons). The whole hand can be assembled in 10minutes, using only a screwdriver and hammer (see the below video). 

CAD files and assembly instructions are available on Thingiverse. The only additional parts you need are two low-cost Dynamixel actuators and the screws that come with those actuators. 

This work has been accepted to IROS 2023, which to be held in October 2023. You can already view the paper on arxiv.

E-TRoll Robotic Gripper

The E-TRoll (Enhanced Tactile Rolling) Hand is a 3DoF Robotic Hand/Gripper with a prismatic palm and two revolute fingers. This hand is originally designed for rolling prismatic objects (and collecting tactile data), but it can be used for grasping, caging, and other in-hand manipulation techniques.

The E-Troll Gripper is open-source. Download the CAD files. 

Read the IROS Paper. 

 

 

 

 

Variable Friction Manipulation

Dexterity is often achieved in robotic grippers by increasing the number of degrees of freedom (DOF). We take an alternative approach of modifying the friction of robotic fingertips. 

The original Variable Friction Gripper was developed by Dr Spiers while a member of Yale University's GRAB Lab.

Read the original Paper: Spiers AJ, Calli B, Dollar AM, 2018, Variable-friction finger surfaces to enable within-hand manipulation via gripping and sliding, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol:3, ISSN:2377-3766, Pages:4116-4123

You can download the CAD files for the original Model VF Gripper.

 

 

We are developing a new version of the variable friction gripper that is easier and cheaper to build and control. Watch this space!

D-PALI

D-PALI stands for Dexterous-PArrallel Linkage. It is a £150 gripper designed as an in-hand manipulation platform. By making use of parrallel mechanisms commonly found in industrial manipulators, we faciliatate the ability to translate and rotate objects within the grasp on the hand.