PASCAV Gripper: A Pneumatically Actuated Soft Cubical Vacuum Gripper

This paper presents the design and testing of a pneumatically actuated silicone rubber gripper - PASCAV. The gripper is based on a Soft Cubic Module (SCM), which has been designed for a variety of applications in a single-block or multi-block arrangements. For PASCAV, an internal chamber in SCM is pneumatically operated to generate a suction effect, which makes the gripper able to grasp objects. The surfaces of the chamber's soft walls enwrap and stick to the target surface, generating sufficient grip to grasp and uphold the object. The preliminary findings demonstrate its ability to grip a range of objects with flat and, uneven or curved surfaces. The approach is successful for objects that fit the size of the actuating vacuum chamber and the designed payload with respect to the size of the cube, hence making it scalable depending upon the application. We describe the development of the gripper and evaluation of its structure and behavior presenting experimental results. The actuation behavior has also been validated based on the finite element analysis (FEA). The results endorse the simple and cost-effective functional design of PASCAV gripper.