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Design and performance analysis of magnetorheological grease flexible manipulator gripper

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Abstract

To address the issue of traditional manipulators being unable to grasp and operate objects of varying shapes or easily damaged objects in some work scenes, a new type of flexible manipulator with magnetorheological grease based on the magnetorheological effect was developed. Comsol was used to simulate the magnetic field of the flexible gripper. The results showed that as coil current increased, the magnetic induction intensity increased, the magnetic induction line began to close to the rubber capsule after the shell support was added, the magnetorheological grease solidified after the magnetic field was applied, and the object could be wrapped and grasped. Then the kinematics and grasping ability of the flexible manipulator with magnetorheological grease in the grasping process are analyzed. Finally, an experimental test platform for the magnetorheological grease flexible manipulator is built, and under different currents (0 A, 0.25 A, 0.5 A, 0.75 A, 1 A), the flexible manipulator is tested for different gripping depths (6 mm, 11 mm, 17.5 mm) and a variety of diameter wooden balls (15 mm, 40 mm, 60 mm) gripping ability. The results show that when the gripping depth is constant, the envelope angle of the flexible fingertip to the sphere decrease with the increase of the diameter of the sphere, and when the diameter of the sphere is constant, the higher the grasping depth of the flexible fingertip, the larger the envelope angle to the sphere.

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Abbreviations

F P :

Clamping force

P jam :

Squeezing pressure

D A, D B :

The diameters at points A and B

F S :

Total grasping force

F F :

Friction force

F I :

Form closing force

μ :

Static friction coefficient

F Nfy :

Friction force of the O-shaped clamping contact area

σ :

Clamping stress

α :

Central angle

h :

Central height

F Pfy :

Clamping force of the O-shaped clamping contact area

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by a Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grant funded by the Chinese government (No.52075263).

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Author notes

  1. These authors equally contributed to this work as first author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, People’s Republic of China

    Xudan Ye, Jiqiang Dong, Wenchao Wang, Jing Lu & Jiong Wang

  2. Science and Technology on Electromechanical Dynamic Control Laboratory, Xi’an, 710065, People’s Republic of China

    Xudan Ye, Jiqiang Dong & Jing Lu

Authors
  1. Xudan Ye
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  2. Jiqiang Dong
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  3. Wenchao Wang
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  4. Jing Lu
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  5. Jiong Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiong Wang.

Additional information

Xudan Ye is a Ph.D. student at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. Her research field is smart materials and structures, and she is dedicated to the vibration damping and buffering of magnetorheological materials and devices in vehicles.

Jiqiang Dong is a Ph.D. student at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. His research field is smart materials and structures, fuze technology, etc. He is dedicated to research on magnetorheological materials research and related device design.

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Ye, X., Dong, J., Wang, W. et al. Design and performance analysis of magnetorheological grease flexible manipulator gripper. J Mech Sci Technol 37, 1243–1254 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0212-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0212-4

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