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Experimental Jamming Gripper (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-12 08:27:06
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Here's next week's video, early for Patrons. This one goes out on Tuesday 20th. So I thought it was about time I tried to make one of these, but using easily accessible off the shelf parts rather than custom moulded/cast flexible sections. it probably needs a custom membrane to be a more useful size though.

Files

Previews only

Experimental Jamming Gripper - PREVIEW VERSION

I've been thinking about building a jamming or 'beanbag' gripper for some time. This gripper uses a flexible membrane full of granular material which can form around the item to be picked up. The air is then sucked out of the membrane which cases the grains to be pulled together so that is becomes rigid. This is like a brick of vacuum packed coffee, but in this case I'm using BB pellets. My membrane is made from a squeezy toy and the rest of the assembly is 3D printed. I'm using a Dynamixel servo to pull a 200CC syringe which pulls the air out of the membrane. You can support me on Patreon or buy my Merchandise: *************************** Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/xrobots Merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/james-bruton *************************** Affiliate links - I will get some money of you use them to sign up or buy something: *************************** Matterhackers 3D printing supplies: http://www.matterhackers.com?aff=7500 Music for your YouTube videos: http://share.epidemicsound.com/xrobots *************************** Other socials: *************************** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xrobotsuk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xrobotsuk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/xrobotsuk *************************** CAD and Code for my projects: https://github.com/XRobots Huge thanks to my Patrons, without whom my standard of living would drastically decline. Like, inside out-Farm Foods bag decline. Plus a very special shoutout to Lulzbot, Inc who keep me in LulzBot 3D printers and support me via Patreon. HARDWARE/SOFTWARE Below you can also find a lot of the typical tools, equipment and supplies used in my projects: Filament from: https://www.3dfuel.com/ Lulzbot 3D Printers: http://bit.ly/2Sj6nil Lincoln Electric Welder: https://bit.ly/2Rqhqos CNC Router: https://bit.ly/2QdsNjt Ryobi Tools: http://bit.ly/2RhArcD Axminster Micro Lathe: http://bit.ly/2Sj6eeN 3D Printer Filament: http://bit.ly/2PdcdUu Soldering Iron: http://bit.ly/2DrNWDR Vectric CNC Software: http://bit.ly/2zxpZqv Why not join my community, who are mostly made up of actual geniuses. There’s a Facebook group and everything: https://www.facebook.com/groups/287089964833488/ XROBOTS Former toy designer, current YouTube maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it. XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available.

Comments

Anonymous

Nice video, this already looks very promising. Have you tried something smaller than the BBs? I could imagine that would help with moulding around contours.

XRobots
>>57576324

Not yet, but I think maybe my membrane is too tight in the cup/clamp to mould around the object it's picking up, so it probably needs a V2.

Anonymous

I keep envisioning these bladders full of jammable BBs as tentacles with flexible ribs that could be induced to lightly enclose an object, then extract the air to lock the tentacle in shape around the object... but that somewhat defeats the idea of the jamming shape for the gripping, when you're then just one step away from a fully mechanical gripper... not sure there's a viable use-case for a hybrid model.

Anonymous

Now envisioning a dual-membrane version... where you have a super-flexible (yet tough) membrane that is brought down around the object with a frame... with an air-extraction hose external to it, open near the middle of the gripper... next is the layer of loose BBs, followed by the another flexible layer with the extraction hose used to lock the BBs.... So, you'd have the loose structure, place it over the object, vacu-form the outer layer around the object by extracting the air from between the work-surface and the object, allowing the BBS to more perfectly fill in around the object, then extract the air from around the BBs to lock that shape... but this brings the dependency of the object being grabbed to be on a surface to which a reasonably good seal could be obtained for the vacu-forming, which may be acceptable for some use-cases, but is certainly not as versatile is the self-contained squashy gripper you're modeling here.... hmm... Nice thought provoking project, James. Thanks for sharing.

XRobots
>>57584766

I think there may be quite a lot more research to do on this one - probably needs some custom flexible moulding to take place though.

Cody Blotske

I wonder if you could pin the middle of the bladder to the back of the gripper. Think more of a donut shape. That'd give objects an obvious pocket to go into. You wouldn't need to push the gripper down as hard. Put hole in the back of the cup. Put a BB on the outside but push it through the hole in the back. Then ziptie around the BB to hold it behind the cup. I could draw something up to make it easier to understand if needed.

Scott Cress

Feels like the smaller the infill the more contour the mechanism can get, and a better grip. I know the BBs are easy and big but you may want to try something smaller like silica beads or even sand. I actually might have something for you if you have a PO box I can mail it to.

Anonymous

James - I am a big fan of yours. Here is a .5mm silicone membrane and some teensy glass beads to try in V2. https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Rubber-Transparent-Resistant-300x370x0-5mm/dp/B071KQLRXB and https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Beads-Weighted-Blankets-lbs/dp/B07MBQ481K/ref=pd_day0fbt_2/142-5282856-7990153?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07MBQ481K&pd_rd_r=3134f8db-93af-4fb4-a939-f78683cab40a&pd_rd_w=7cnGU&pd_rd_wg=6mtEt&pf_rd_p=6a05ef20-9a93-4152-93b4-38b758e10220&pf_rd_r=T1A8GMCNCAXXB4KCFKCT&psc=1&refRID=T1A8GMCNCAXXB4KCFKCT

Anonymous

Nice, thanks for the vid! Did you wash all the wax from the apple?

Scott Cress
>>57595433

Well let me know, if you do plan a V2. I'll ship the "silica beads" to you no cost. I'll also get you an exact size and make of the material.

XRobots
>>57623773

I think I'd prefer to mould a round shape again so it's easy to make it air tight, but the other link looks interesting, thanks!

Faraz Sayed

Great video, really interesting. I think with the cup so large there's not as much room for the beads to go in comparison to the more bulbous design the researchers had. This probably won't solve your issues but maybe some 'relief slots' on the support cup could assist in the distribution of the mass of beads.

Anonymous

James what about a combo of bb’s and small cubes about the same size. The corners may offer more grip?

Pete Mertz

There was a team at Cornell doing similar studies a while back -- they landed on coffee grounds in a balloon. Might maintain lightness + have a little more gripiness if you're interested! That being said, I have a neighbor who works on large scale robotic arms, and he mentioned that few professional settings use it because if the balloon bursts, which it will after some time, you have a lovely fine coffee particulate spread over your assembly line :) Article for reference: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/10/researchers-develop-universal-robotic-gripper

XRobots
>>57651267

That's a good one, there may be quite a lot of further research on this!

Anonymous
>>57661685

“ As for the right particulate material, anything that can jam will do in principle, and early prototypes involved rice, couscous and even ground-up tires, Amend said. They settled on coffee because it's light but also jams well, Sand did better on jamming but was prohibitively heavy.” I wonder if your arm will have more torque than when they were testing in 2010 and can handle a coffee/ sand mixture or all sand.

XRobots
>>57661685

I'm not sure where it's going yet, but even the BBs have quite a bit of mass.

Faraz Sayed

I was thinking about this again, and i thought it could be interesting to try a bladder filled with custard. Its an non- newtonian fluid that could mold around the object then you could maybe use some vibrating motors or a transducer to make it solid again. I'd like to know what you and other patreons think.

XRobots
>>58669943

That's an interesting idea - I wonder how much vibration you'd need to make it solidify?