Using Additive Technologies and Bio-Inspired Design to Create Fingers of Robot Gripper

Using the principles of living structures in the design of robots makes it possible to create artificial structures that are unique in their operational characteristics. The advantage of living structures is provided by biological materials that have high strength, rigidity and elasticity at low weight. The ability to use solutions that provide such a beneficial combination of properties in the design of man-made structures has recently emerged thanks to advances in additive technologies. In this work, the principles of bio-inspired design have been applied to the gripper fingers for a fruit harvesting robot. The preliminary design data were used to simulate the gripper finger and calculate its strength in the ANSYS software package. Strength calculations were carried out in conjunction with topology optimization of the geometry to reduce the weight of the structure. The optimized part geometry has been refined using 3D modeling application. The research resulted in a working prototype of the gripper, the critical parts of which were made of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymer on a 3D printer. The principles of generative design and the growth of living structures were also used to develop a control program for a 3D printer that grew any part as a gradient structure. To print the biomimetic structure, the bones of birds with sizes close to those of gripper fingers were studied.