From grasping to manipulation with gecko-inspired adhesives on a multifinger gripper
Abstract
Anthropomorphic robotic manipulators have high grasp mobility and task flexibility but struggle to match the practical strength of parallel jaw grippers. Gecko-inspired adhesives are a promising technology to span that gap in performance, but three key principles must be maintained for their efficient usage: high contact area, shear load sharing, and evenly distributed normal stress. This work presents an anthropomorphic end effector that combines those adhesive principles with the mobility and stiffness of a multiphalange, multifinger design. Adhesive suspensions use buckling ribs to deliver shear load sharing and normal compliance in a deployable form factor. We use an elastic foundation model and fundamentals of grasping theory to motivate kinematic changes when shifting from Coulomb friction to adhesive manipulation. These design considerations integrate with the necessary control infrastructure in a prototype called farmHand, on which we perform tests to confirm shear load sharing and demonstrate adhesive use in manipulation beyond pick and place grasping.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Already a Subscriber?Sign In
Supplementary Materials
This PDF file includes:
Texts S1 to S4
Table S1
Figs. S1 and S2
Legends for movies S1 and S2
Other Supplementary Material for this manuscript includes the following:
Movies S1 and S2
REFERENCES AND NOTES
1
A. Bicchi, Hands for dexterous manipulation and robust grasping: A difficult road toward simplicity. IEEE Trans. Rob. Autom. 16, 652–662 (2000).
2
R. R. Ma, A. M. Dollar, On dexterity and dexterous manipulation, in 2011 15th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR) (IEEE, 2011).
3
J. N. Israelachvili, Intermolecular and Surface Forces (Academic Press, 2015).
4
K. Autumn, Y. A. Liang, S. T. Hsieh, W. Zesch, W. P. Chan, T. W. Kenny, R. Fearing, R. J. Full, Adhesive force of a single gecko foot-hair. Nature 405, 681–685 (2000).
5
Y. Li, J. Krahn, C. Menon, Bioinspired dry adhesive materials and their application in robotics: A review. J. Bionic Eng. 13, 181–199 (2016).
6
E. W. Hawkes, E. V. Eason, A. T. Asbeck, M. R. Cutkosky, The gecko’s toe: Scaling directional adhesives for climbing applications. IEEE ASME Trans. Mechatron. 18, 518–526 (2012).
7
A. Asbeck, S. Dastoor, A. Parness, L. Fullerton, N. Esparza, D. Soto, B. Heyneman, M. Cutkosky, Climbing rough vertical surfaces with hierarchical directional adhesion, in 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE, 2009).
8
A. Parness, Micro-Structured Adhesives for Climbing Applicationjs (Stanford University, 2010).
9
M. R. Cutkosky, Climbing with adhesion: From bioinspiration to biounderstanding. Interface Focus 5, 20150015 (2015).
10
E. W. Hawkes, E. V. Eason, D. L. Christensen, M. R. Cutkosky, Human climbing with efficiently scaled gecko-inspired dry adhesives. J. R. Soc. Interface 12, 20140675 (2015).
11
J.-P. Roberge, W. Ruotolo, V. Duchaine, M. Cutkosky, Improving industrial grippers with adhesion-controlled friction. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 3, 1041–1048 (2018).
12
P. Glick, S. A. Suresh, D. Ruffatto, M. Cutkosky, M. T. Tolley, A. Parness, A soft robotic gripper with gecko-inspired adhesive. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 3, 903–910 (2018).
13
H. Jiang, E. W. Hawkes, C. Fuller, M. A. Estrada, S. A. Suresh, N. Abcouwer, A. K. Han, S. Wang, C. J. Ploch, A. Parness, M. R. Cutkosky, A robotic device using gecko-inspired adhesives can grasp and manipulate large objects in microgravity. Sci. Robot. 2, eaan4545 (2017).
14
V. Alizadehyazdi, M. Bonthron, M. Spenko, An electrostatic/gecko-inspired adhesives soft robotic gripper. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 5, 4679–4686 (2020).
15
E. W. Hawkes, D. L. Christensen, A. K. Han, H. Jiang, M. R. Cutkosky, Grasping without squeezing: Shear adhesion gripper with fibrillar thin film, in 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (IEEE, 2015).
16
G. J. Monkman, An analysis of astrictive prehension. Int. J. Robot. Res. 16, 1–10 (1997).
17
S. Song, C. Majidi, M. Sitti, Geckogripper: A soft, inflatable robotic gripper using geckoinspired elastomer micro-fiber adhesives, in 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IEEE, 2014), pp. 4624–4629.
18
S. Song, D.-M. Drotlef, C. Majidi, M. Sitti, Controllable load sharing for soft adhesive interfaces on three-dimensional surfaces. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114, E4344–E4353 (2017).
19
J. Hashizume, T. M. Huh, S. A. Suresh, M. R. Cutkosky, Capacitive sensing for a gripper with gecko-inspired adhesive film. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 4, 677–683 (2019).
20
D. Hirano, N. Tanishima, A. Bylard, T. G. Chen, Underactuated gecko adhesive gripper for simple and versatile grasp, in 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (IEEE, 2020).
21
P. Day, E. V. Eason, N. Esparza, D. Christensen, M. Cutkosky, Microwedge machining for the manufacture of directional dry adhesives. J. Micro Nano-Manuf. 1, 011001 (2013).
22
S. Wang, H. Jiang, T. Myung Huh, D. Sun, W. Ruotolo, M. Miller, W. R. T. Roderick, H. S. Stuart, M. R. Cutkosky, Spinyhand: Contact load sharing for a human-scale climbing robot. J. Mech. Robot. 11, 031009 (2019).
23
A. Cauligi, Tony G. Chen, S. A. Suresh, M. Dille, R. G. Ruiz, A. M. Vargas, M. Pavone, M. R. Cutkosky, Design and development of a gecko-adhesive gripper for the astrobee free-flying robot. arXiv:2009.09151 [cs.RO] (19 September 2020).
24
W. Ruotolo, F. S. Roig, M. R. Cutkosky, Load-sharing in soft and spiny paws for a large climbing robot. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 4, 1439–1446 (2019).
25
J. Y. Han, Low-cost multi-touch sensing through frustrated total internal reflection, in UIST ‘05: Proceedings of the 18th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (ACM, 2005), pp. 115–118.
26
J. K. Salisbury, B. Roth, Kinematic and force analysis of articulated mechanical hands. J. Mech. Des. 105, 35–41 (1983).
27
M. T. Mason, J. K. Salisbury, Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation (The MIT Press, 1985).
28
M. R. Cutkosky, R. D. Howe, Human grasp choice and robotic grasp analysis, in Dextrous Robot Hands (Springer, 1990), pp. 5–31.
29
C. Ferrari, J. F. Canny, Planning optimal grasps, in Proceedings of 1992 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE, 1992).
30
J. Falco, K. Van Wyk, E. Messina, “Performance metrics and test methods for robotic hands” (DRAFT NIST Special Publication 1227, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2018).
31
J. Bohg, A. Morales, T. Asfour, D. Kragic, Data-driven grasp synthesis—A survey. IEEE Trans. Robot. 30, 289 (2014).
32
E. W. Hawkes, H. Jiang, M. R. Cutkosky, Three-dimensional dynamic surface grasping with dry adhesion. Int. J. Robot. Res. 35, 943–958 (2016).
33
E. V. Eason, E. W. Hawkes, M. Windheim, D. L. Christensen, T. Libby, M. R. Cutkosky, Stress distribution and contact area measurements of a gecko toe using a high-resolution tactile sensor. Bioinspir. Biomim. 10, 016013 (2015).
34
M. Sitti, R. S. Fearing, Synthetic gecko foot-hair micro/nano-structures as dry adhesives. J. Adhes. Sci. Technol. 17, 1055–1073 (2003).
35
K. Autumn, A. Dittmore, D. Santos, M. Spenko, M. Cutkosky, Frictional adhesion: A new angle on gecko attachment. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 3569–3579 (2006).
36
C. Kerst, S. A. Suresh, M. Ferro, M. Cutkosky, Pedot: Pss coating improves gecko-inspired adhesive performance. J. Micro Nano Manuf. 8, 034501 (2020).
37
A. K. Han, A. Hajj-Ahmad, M. R. Cutkosky, Hybrid electrostatic and gecko-inspired gripping pads for manipulating bulky, non-smooth items. Smart Mater. Struct. 30, 025010 (2021).
38
D. A. Dillard, B. Mukherjee, P. Karnal, R. C. Batra, J. Frechette, A review of winkler’s foundation and its profound influence on adhesion and soft matter applications. Soft Matter 14, 3669–3683 (2018).
39
M. Ciocarlie, C. Lackner, P. Allen, Soft finger model with adaptive contact geometry for grasping and manipulation tasks, in Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC’07) (IEEE, 2007), pp. 219–224.
40
S. A. A. Moosavian, K. Alipour, On the dynamic tip-over stability of wheeled mobile manipulators. Int. J. Robot. Autom. 22, 322–328 (2007).
41
E. Papadopoulos, D. A. Rey, A new measure of tipover stability margin for mobile manipulators, in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE, 1996).
42
M. R. Cutkosky, On grasp choice, grasp models, and the design of hands for manufacturing tasks. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 5, 269–279 (1989).
43
G. A. Kragten, M. Baril, C. Gosselin, J. L. Herder, Stable precision grasps by underactuated grippers. IEEE Trans. Robot. 27, 1056–1066 (2011).
44
T. Laliberte, L. Birglen, C. Gosselin, Underactuation in robotic grasping hands. Mach. Intell. Robot. Control 4, 77–87 (2002).
45
Z. Zyada, Y. Hayakawa, S. Hosose, Kinematic analysis of a two-link object for whole arm manipulation, in ISPRA’10: Proceedings of the 9th WSEAS International Conference on Signal Processing, Robotics and Automation (ACM, 2010), pp. 139–145.
46
R. M. Murray, Z. Li, S. S. Sastry, S. S. Sastry, A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation (CRC Press, 1994).
47
D. Prattichizzo, J. K. Salisbury, A. Bicchi, Contact and grasp robustness measures: Analysis and experiments, in Experimental Robotics IV (Springer, 1997), pp. 83–90.
48
M. R. Cutkosky, P. K. Wright, Friction, stability and the design of robotic fingers. Int. J. Robot. Res. 5, 20–37 (1986).
49
W. Ruotolo, R. Thomasson, J. Herrera, A. Gruebele, M. Cutkosky, Distal hyperextension is handy: High range of motion in cluttered environments. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 5, 921–928 (2020).
50
W. Wang, S.-H. Ahn, Shape memory alloy-based soft gripper with variable stiffness for compliant and effective grasping. Soft Robot. 4, 379–389 (2017).
51
M. R. Cutkosky, I. Kao, Computing and controlling compliance of a robotic hand. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 5, 151–165 (1989).
52
S. Hirose, Y. Umetani, The development of soft gripper for the versatile robot hand. Mech. Mach. Theory 13, 351–359 (1978).
53
D. M. Aukes, M. R. Cutkosky, Simulation-based tools for evaluating underactuated hand designs, in 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE, 2013).
54
D. M. Aukes, B. Heyneman, J. Ulmen, H. Stuart, M. R. Cutkosky, S. Kim, P. Garcia, A. Edsinger, Design and testing of a selectively compliant underactuated hand. Int. J. Robot. Res. 33, 721–735 (2014).
55
G. A. Kragten, J. L. Herder, The ability of underactuated hands to grasp and hold objects. Mech. Mach. Theory 45, 408–425 (2010).
56
L. U. Odhner, L. P. Jentoft, M. R. Claffee, N. Corson, Y. Tenzer, R. R. Ma, M. Buehler, R. Kohout, R. D. Howe, A. M. Dollar, A compliant, underactuated hand for robust manipulation. Int. J. Robot. Res. 33, 736–752 (2014).
57
B. Soltannia, D. Sameoto, Strong, reversible underwater adhesion via gecko-inspired hydrophobic fibers. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 6, 21995–22003 (2014).
58
S. Xia, Y. Chen, J. Tian, J. Shi, C. Geng, H. Zou, M. Liang, Z. Li, Superior low-temperature reversible adhesion based on bio-inspired microfibrillar adhesives fabricated by phenyl containing polydimethylsiloxane elastomers. Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2101143 (2021).
59
N. F. Lepora, K. Aquilina, L. Cramphorn, Exploratory tactile servoing with active touch. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 2, 1156–1163 (2017).
60
Q. Li, C. Schurmann, R. Haschke, H. J. Ritter, A control framework for tactile servoing, in Robotics: Science and Systems (2013).
61
M. R. Cutkosky, P. S. Day, E. V. Eason, Mold fabrication method for gecko-inspired adhesives. U.S. Patent 9,908,266 (2018).
62
W. Ruotolo, farmHand kinematics analysis. Zenodo (2021); https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/429142560.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science Robotics
Volume 6 | Issue 61
December 2021
December 2021
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
Submission history
Received: 4 May 2021
Accepted: 18 November 2021
Acknowledgments
We thank M. Lin for editing assistance, A. Hajj-Ahmad for fabrication of gecko-inspired adhesives, and T. Chen for both.
Funding: Toyota Research Institute (TRI) provided funds to support this work, although this article solely reflects the opinions and conclusions of its authors and not TRI or any other Toyota entity. D.B. was supported by the Stanford Graduate Fellowship.
Author contributions: W.R. designed and built the hand prototype, wrote the control software, and designed and wrote the simulation and modeling code (excluding FEA analysis of rippling). D.B. performed all ANSYS simulation and setup as well as postprocessing of FTIR results. All authors contributed to paper writing, and W.R. and D.B. both participated in the design, fabrication, and usage of the FTIR test setup as well as design and tuning of the compliant adhesive suspensions.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper or the Supplementary Materials. Code used for kinematics analysis is available at (62).
Authors
Funding Information
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
View Options
Get Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your Account
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Purchase digital access to this article
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
View options
PDF format
Download this article as a PDF file
Download PDF