• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.174-184
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• 1997

This paper presents a robust force tracking control of a smart flexible gripper featured by a piezoceramic actuator characterizing its durability and quick response time. A mathematical governing equation for the proposed gripper structure is derived by employing Hamilton's principle and a state space control model is subsequently obtained through model analysis. Uncertain system parameters such as frequency variation are included in the control model. A sliding mode control theory which has inherent robustness to the sys- tem uncertainties is adopted to design a force tracking controller for the piezoceramic actuator. Using out- put information from the tip force sensor, a full-order observer is constructed to estimate state variables of the system. Force tracking performances for desired trajectories represented by sinusoidal and step func- tions are evaluated by undertaking both simulation and experimental works. In addition, in order to illustrate practical feasibility of the proposed method, a two-fingered gripper is constructed and its performance is demonstrated by showing a capability of holding an object.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.541-558
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• 2014

This paper proposes a new design of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuated gripper for open mode operation. SMA can generate smooth muscle movements during actuation which make them potentially good contenders in designing grippers. The principle of the shape memory alloy gripper is to convert the linear displacement of the SMA wire actuator into the angular displacement of the gripping jaw. Steady state analysis is performed to design the wire diameter of the bias spring for a known SMA wire. The gripper is designed to open about an angle of $22.5^{\circ}$ when actuated using pulsating electric current from a constant current source. The safe operating power range of the gripper is determined and verified theoretically. Experimental evaluation for the uncontrolled gripper showed a rotation of $19.97^{\circ}$. Forced cooling techniques were employed to speed up the cooling process. The gripper is simple and robust in design (single movable jaw), easy to fabricate, low cost, and exhibits wide handling capabilities like longer object handling time and handling wide sizes of objects with minimum utilization of power since power is required only to grasp and release operations.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2024

The ability of the robot gripper to handle a wide range of objects significantly impacts its operational effectiveness. Among the robot grippers commonly used, the economically feasible choice is the relatively simple structure of a parallel gripper. To perform more densely packed tasks with a parallel gripper, it should be capable of handling small objects. Therefore, this study designs a parallel gripper mechanism equipped with assisting grippers to ensure smooth grasping of small objects. The parallel gripper is designed using a rack and pinion gear system, with two additional grippers on both side, and these assisting grippers are designed to be detachable. The two assisting grippers have different type of tip to grasp thin fabric shapes and thin stick shapes. The gripper prototype is used to verify the grasping capabilities for shapes achievable with a conventional parallel gripper and those intended for grasping with the assisting grippers through grasping experiments. Consequently, by equipping a conventional parallel gripper with assisting grippers as in this study, it becomes capable of handling a broader range of objects, in addition to its existing functionality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a new approach to design and control a smart gripper of robot system. A control method for flexible grasping a object in partially unknown environment was proposed, where a proximate sensor detecting the distance between the fingertip and object was used. Based on the proximate sensor signal the finger motion controller could plan the grasping process divided in three phases. The first step is scanning process which two first joints were moved to mid-position of the detected range by a state-variable feedback position controller, after the scanning was finished. The contact force of fingertip was then controlled using the detection sensor of the servo controller for finger joint control. The proposed grasping planning was tested on rectangular bar.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2022

The role of drones has been expanded to various fields such as agriculture, construction, and logistics. In particular, agriculture drones are emerging as an effective alternative to solve the problem of labor shortage and reduce the input cost. In this study therefore, we proposed the fruit recognition algorithm and harvesting mechanism for fruit harvesting drone system that can safely harvest fruits at high positions. In the fruit recognition algorithm, we employ "You-Only-Look-Once" which is a deep learning-based object detection algorithm and verify its feasibility by establishing a virtual simulation environment. In addition, we propose the fruit harvesting mechanism which can be operated by a single driving motor. The rotational motion of the motor is converted into a linear motion by the scotch yoke, and the opened gripper moves forward, grips a fruit and rotates it for harvesting. The feasibility of the proposed mechanism is verified by performing Multi-body dynamics analysis.