MIE.36 – Robotic End Effector

Professor Bhounsule’s robotics laboratory at UIC possesses a humanoid robot for R&D purposes. He has assigned the task of designing, prototyping, manufacturing, and testing hand-like end effectors for this robot. The end effectors must be capable of identifying an object, securing it in some manner, holding onto the object, and letting go of it at any desired time. Several possible design solutions have been proposed and evaluated. The chief idea being a pneumatic powered gripper, i.e. a suction cup. The feasibility and forgiveness of such a method is appealing, as it allows for a higher margin of success. Further design considerations included the number of degrees of freedom desired, as well as possibly securing any object mechanically once it is pneumatically gripped via the suction cup method. The goal of the project consists of creating an accurate demonstration of how our design wkill be utilized. The components utilized in the design include two pneumatic pumps, two 20kg servos, an arduino UNO, wires, multiple suction cups, pneumatic hoses, pneumatic fittings, joystick, and buttons. Our design demonstration will have a 3D printed version of the humanoid robot’s arm, mounted on a 2-axis swivel mount (driven by servos). At the end of the arm will be a mount for the wrist assembly, which consists of another 2-axis swivel mechanism, in order to replicate a humanoid’s wrist movement. At the end of the wrist assembly will be a suction cup sub-assembly, driven by two pneumatic pumps attached to the wrist mount. For demonstration purposes, the end effector mechanism will be driven by user input, utilizing a custom open loop controller. This is due to the uncertainty of how future graduate students in Professor Bhounsule’s lab will integrate our design. To accomplish all of this, standard engineering design steps were taken, including scheduling project deadlines via Gantt Chart, design criteria via Fishbone diagram, and design brainstorming via research and sketching, with prototype manufacturing following as well as troubleshooting. The resulting demonstration should provide a usable proof of concept for how to provide end effector capability for Professor Bhounsule’s humanoid robot.