Development of an underactuated robot gripper capable of retracting motion

This paper presents a new underactuated robot gripper capable of retracting motion. Two fingers of the gripper consist of parallel-linkages and belts which can grasp objects and switch its motion to the retracting automatically. These gripping and retracting motions are given by a single motor through a planetary gear mechanism. Two angled wheels called a rotational resistance mechanism are pressed to the belts to regulate the distribution of the motor power. To verify the validity of the underactuated robot gripper, the experiments of the fabricated prototype are conducted.