The main challenge in soft pneumatically actuated robotics is that we do not achieve a sufficiently high gripping force to be fully satisfactory. Several factors influence this force, but they are not well-documented. In this thesis, we aimed to address this by first designing our own soft gripper. We used Finite Element Method (FEM) for the design, then 3D printed the grippers and measured their maximum force at a given angle and pressure. To ensure the reproducibility of the data, we also designed a testing setup.
For the measurements, we used an S beam load cell. The data revealed that each gripper shape has its own characteristic graph, showing the relationship between maximum measured force, pressure, and angle. The results also clearly indicate that at the same pressure, grippers with thinner walls produce higher forces than those with thicker walls. Additionally, increasing the number and height of the chambers significantly enhances the gripping force of the soft gripper.
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