Robotic manipulation comes of age?

摘要

In June 2015, a year-old US start-up announced a partnership with Heinzen Manufacturing International, a Californian company that makes sorters, washers and chopping equipment for produce manufacturers that ship cut fruit and bagged and washed greens to retail. The company intends to offer clients a robotic arm equipped with a speciality gripper made by Soft Robotics. Their bright blue robotic fingers curl like tentacles around vegetables, traditionally a difficult sector of the food industry to infiltrate for robotics companies. The technology allows the robot to use programming to grab anything put in front of them, regardless of the size. The grippers inflate and deflate as needed, which means the company hasn't had to rely on cameras or sensors to develop. Essentially, the octopus-like robot acts like the grasp of a human hand. Empire Robotics, on the other hand, has eliminated the need for fingers or tentacles altogether. Their grippers are round; a green green ball filled with a sand-like material. When air is pumped into the ball, the ball softens and is then pushed against the target object. Pulling air out of the ball jams the sand-like material together, causing the ball to harden. This transition from soft to hard creates the gripping forces.