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An Open-Source 3D Printed Underactuated Robotic Gripper

Conference Paper · September 2014

DOI: 10.1109/MESA.2014.6935605

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 An Open-Source 3D Printed Underactuated
Robotic Gripper
Yedige Tlegenov, Kuat Telegenov, Almas Shintemirov
Department of Robotics and Mechatronics
Nazarbayev University
Astana, Kazakhstan, 010000
Emails: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper authors present an open source low- picking round objects and placing them in a tray with little
cost basic robotic end effector platform for facilitating research space for movement.
on robotic grasping. The 3D design model of a three fingered In general, many of the commercially available hands do not
underactuated robotic gripper is presented and manufactured
with minimal number of 3D printed components and an off-the- accommodate extensive customisation of the design features
shelf servomotor actuator. An underactuated finger, gear train for attachment to different robotic arm platforms or integration
mechanisms and an overall gripper assembly design are described of additional sensors for research purposes [12]. To address
in details followed by illustration and discussion of grasping such problems 3D printing rapid prototyping technology is
of objects with various geometries. The presented open source actively applied for manufacturing of low-cost robotic hands
gripper design will be released for downloading on the authors’
research lab web-site www.alaris.kz and can be useful for [13], [14]. Aiming to provide a basic robotic platform with
robotic researchers as a platform to build their own robotic end minimal number of 3D printed components and off-the-shelf
effector solutions for research and educational purposes. actuator for facilitating robotic research efforts, a 3D printed
open source tendon driven hand is proposed in [12]. State-of-
I. I NTRODUCTION the-art of the grasping in robotics recently presented in [15].
Development of robotic end effectors that are employed for To extend the choice of robotic end effectors freely available
grasping of a variety of objects is an active research area. to researchers, in this paper the authors utilize a linkage
Various robotic end effectors were developed for wide range of based finger system and present an open source 3D printed
applications where reproducing the human hand functionality underactuated three fingered robotic gripper with a simple
is required [1]–[3]. However, in most of industrial and service design and relatively higher payload property comparing to
applications manipulation of objects with anthropomorphic similar size tendon driven mechanisms. The 3D model of the
robotic hands is not required and three fingered grasping gripper is created using the SolidWorks CAD software and
devices are more sufficient [4]. Considering mechanical finger will be available for downloading from www.alaris.kz/.
designs, a lot of robotic grippers utilize individual actuation The organization of the paper is as follows. Section II
of each joint of the finger using a small high precision DC describes the design and manufacturing of the 3D printed
servomotors [5], [6]. This provides high number of control- three-fingered robotic gripper. The grasping performance of
lable degrees of freedom (DOF), which is very suitable for the robotic gripper prototype is presented in Section III, which
grasping of complex shape objects. On the other hand, usage is followed by the conclusions and future work in Section IV.
of multiple actuators in each finger mechanism results in high
II. D ESIGN AND FABRICATION OF 3D P RINTED T HREE
cost of the device and control complexity.
F INGERED ROBOTIC G RIPPER
A number of designs utilize pulley/tendon driven mech-
anisms for wide range of robotics systems [7]. They have A. Underactuated Finger Mechanism
many advantages such as low weight, less number of actuators Underactuated fingers have less number of actuators than
and high degree of adaptability. Among disadvantages are total DOFs and are widely utilized in design of various
limitations in load carrying capacity and low wear resistance. robotic hands for industrial [16] and service robotics [17].
Therefore, as an alternative, mechanical linkage systems are This is largely attributed to the relatively simple design of such
utilized for different designs of underactuated artificial fingers mechanisms comparing with fully actuated dexterous artificial
[8], [9]. fingers. At the same time, an underactuated finger mechanism
There are many simple designs of commercially available should ensure close wrapping of different shape objects due
grippers for grasping cylindrical and spherical shape objects. to its adaptive grasping capability with one DOF actuation.
For example, a 3-fingered concentric gripper [10] is designed In this work, the underactuated linkage mechanism is em-
for relatively high payload industrial applications, but it is ployed for finger design described in [18], [19]. This design
not able to perform enveloping grasping. The reconfigurable ensures a simple low-cost mechanical system which was
gripper [11] with convex shape thin fingers is designed for one of the principles for finger design requirements [20].

978-1-4799-2280-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 Fig. 1. Closing sequence of a 2-DOF underactuated finger.

(a)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 2. 2D (a) and 3D (b) designs of the underactuated finger. (b)

Fig. 3. 2D (a) and 3D (b) sketches of the gear train design for one finger.

Consider a 2-DOF and one degree-of-actuation (1-DOA) finger

mechanism shown in Fig.1. A passive element, i.e. a spring
between the first and second phalanges is used for providing pivot point; subsequently link 1 transfers the motion to link 2.
actuation of the second DOF of the finger [19]. The closing The extension spring allows the finger to behave as a single
sequence of the underactuated finger is described as follows. rigid body during rotary motion around the fixed pivot. When
Firstly, the finger moves as a rigid body from its initial position the first phalanx touches an object, the force produced by an
since no external force is acting on it. When the first phalanx of actuator extends the spring which starts transferring motion to
the finger is in contact with an object, the second phalanx starts the second phalanx only. Finally, both the phalanges contact
movement around a pivot point to complete a full wrapping. an object that concludes a finger closing sequence.
Same method can be applied to n-phalanx finger [19]. Grasping characteristics of the gripper can be modified by
Utilizing this principle, an underactuated finger mechanism setting various geometries of two actuation links of the fingers.
is designed and presented in Fig. 2. The finger consists of two For instance, changing the length of two actuation links of
phalanges, two links, an extension spring and a worm wheel. the finger can result in various dynamic outputs of the first
Note that the worm wheel and link 1 are rigidly connected. and second phalanges. The surfaces of the finger components
The worm wheel transmits rotary motion to link 1 around its are flat so that the printer support material can be removed
 (a) (b)

Fig. 4. Arrangement of worm wheels connected to the actuating worm in 2D (a) and 3D (b) views.

manually with little effort. All rotational joints of the finger printer is up to 0.15 mm [21]. It is not possible to create small
are connected via pivots with retaining rings at both sides, as and miniature gears with small teeth for the gear train. More
shown in Fig. 2(b). The pivot 3D models are supplied with the advanced and sophisticated 3D printer can be used instead.
gripper CAD model and can be used for manufacturing metal
pivots using standard machine shop facilities. C. Three Fingered Robotic Gripper
The three fingered robotic gripper consists of the three 2-
B. Gear Train Design DOFs underactuated fingers, a base, a palm, a gear train set
The three fingers in the gripper are actuated by a single and an actuator. The fingers are attached in a circular way
actuator using a gear train transmission system. The 2D and with 120 degrees between each other. This allows the worm
3D representations of the single finger actuation is shown in wheels of the fingers to be driven from a single actuator via
Fig.3. A servo actuator is fixed on the base and drives the the actuating worm as illustrated in Fig. 4. This type of layout
directly connected worm gear. The worm transfers rotational of the fingers is preferable for grasping spherical or cylindrical
motion to the set of worm wheels, which are connected to objects of different sizes.
each finger. All three fingers are driven simultaneously from The CAD model of the robotic gripper and a 3D printed
their initial position. Usage of the worm gear ensures non- assembled prototype are presented in Fig. 5. The prototype is
backdriveability of the finger actuation mechanism. The set of manufactured using 3D printing technology with ABS plastic
two worm wheels are placed in a way that allows adjustment and rubber materials. ABS is a strong, durable production-
of the rotational speed and torque transferred to a finger by grade thermoplastic used across many industries, and it is an
changing the gear ratios within the given distance between ideal material for conceptual prototyping [22]. An additional
gear rotational axes. Researchers can also change the actuator off-the-shelf component, a Dynamixel MX-28 servomotor,
and set up custom gear train speed/torque ratio depending on is used as an actuator for robotic gripper prototype that
their need without modifying the overall gripper design. eliminates necessary for complex electronic circuits and en-
As rapid prototyping technology can impose limitations in coders for motor position control. Control of the actuator
producing strong and precise miniature parts due to the low can be performed directly using MATLAB [23], a C/ C++
resolution and/or printing material properties of 3D printers, programming environment and/or the Robot Operating System
the gear train design utilizes a minimal number of small size (ROS) [24], that provide easy and straightforward integration
parts. The presented worm and the worm wheels are designed of the gripper with other robotic research setups. The output
to allow easy 3D printing that is achieved with high gear torque of Dynamixel MX-28 servomotor at 12V is 2.5 Nm
tooth module number. So one can easily replace to their own [25].
different variants depending on custom gripper requirements. The exploded assembly view of the gripper design is
One should take note that the layer resolution of used 3D presented in Fig. 6. The actuator is mounted using bolts
 (a) (b)

Fig. 5. Three fingered gripper CAD assembly model (a) and a 3D printed prototype (b).

Fig. 6. Exploded assembly view of the presented three fingered gripper.

 Fig. 7. Grasping of different objects using the presented three fingered gripper.

on a base with a circular shape and flat bottom. The base a number of objects with different shapes. As shown in the
shape and attachment holes for mounting the gripper can be figure during the grasping of an egg shaped ball all the three
further created in a CAD program or easily drilled depending gripper fingers and their phalanges move as single rigid bodies
on robotic arm used. The worm is fixed to the actuator’s and their passive elements are not active.
output shaft at one side and to the palm at the other end. On the other hand, the springs in each finger provide the
The worm axis is coincident with the symmetry axis of the second DOF when grasping a spherical shaped ball: as all
gripper palm. The three fingers are fixed to the palm via the first phalanges of the fingers touch the ball, the second
pivots (shafts) with retaining rings and rotate about their pivot phalanges envelop the object and complete grasping. The
points. The palm and the base are connected to each other same grasping pattern is observed in grasping short cylindrical
via three aluminium standoffs fixed by bolts from both sides. objects such as a bearing block.
The standoffs with various length can be used to accommodate Small objects are normally grasped by second phalanges or
alternative gear trains. The palm and the fingers have spacings finger tips only, performing the spherical pinch grasp.
for thin rubber cushions. These outer cushions are designed for Executing grasping of complex shape objects with strong
reducing slippery between the gripper and a grasping object asymmetric geometry, all the three fingers wrap of the object
and can be 3D printed using any rubber-like material [26]. If with different degree of bending depending on the object
needed, the cushions can be replaced by tactile sensors with shape. For example, in the case of grasping of a cup and
minor modification of the finger and palm designs. The overall a joystick objects, one finger moves as a single rigid body
weight of the gripper with current configuration is 500 grams. while the others actuate the second DOF and envelop the
object. Thus, it is shown the gripper can successfully grasp
III. G RASPING PERFORMANCE objects with different shapes and sizes and can used with
The effective grasping of objects with different shapes and further customisation for research and educational purposes.
sizes is one of the important gripper design requirements. The The maximum gripping force at the tip of the robotic gripper
presented underactuated gripper prototype ensures adaptive prototype was experimentally estimated as 9 N. However, due
passive grasping and full wrapping of grasping objects. Fig.7 to non-backdriveability of the gripper actuating mechanism,
illustrates the performance of the robotic gripper in grasping the gripper fingers may resist much larger forces that they
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