Flexible Gripper - spread foot

Applicable Models: myCobot 280, myPalletizer 260, mechArm 270, myBuddy 280

**Product Illustration

Specifications:

Flexible gripper: For clamping objects

Introduction

• Traditional industrial suction cups need to suck the flat surface of the material, in more and more working conditions, sucking the surface is easy to damage the panel or components, soft touch gripper pinch edge gripping, easy to handle the panel without traces of non-destructive, to ensure that the product surface is flawless, and improve the yield rate.
• The modular design of the soft-touch gripper is lightweight and can be freely arranged and combined according to the panel size.
• The clamping force of the traditional cylinder is generally larger and difficult to control, and the edge of the clamped panel is easy to pinch and clip the warped, flexible clamping gripper of the single-finger clamping force is precise and controllable, and will not pinch the fragile workpiece.

**Working Principle

• Flexible Claw is an innovative biomimetic flexible fixture developed by researchers imitating the shape of a starfish's wrists and feet. Soft claw "finger" is made of polymer silicone flexible material, through the inflatable to achieve bending deformation, like a starfish, adaptive wrap around the target object, can complete the shaped, fragile items of flexible, non-destructive grasp.

Applicable objects

• Reasonable size of any shape of the object

Installation and use

• Check that the kit has everything: LEGO connectors, clamping claws with connecting cable, connecting cable extension cable.

• gripper mounting:

  • Structure Installation:

    1. Insert the LEGO connectors into the sockets reserved for the clamping gripper, which can be installed in two different directions as required:

       Method 1 Method 2

    2. Insert the jaws of the inserted connection against the end socket of the robot arm:

       Method 1 Method 2

  • Electrical connections:

    1. Connect the extension cord to the jaws:

       

    2. Plug in the robotic arm control interface:

       
       Method 1
       Method 2

• Software driver test:

  Test that the jaws are available after installation, using myBlockly. myblockly download

  1. After confirming that the structural and electrical connections are complete, start the robot arm and open the myblockly software when the graphical interface appears.
     
  2. Modify the baud rate to 1000000
     
  3. Find Gripper in the list on the left and select the Status Settings module.
     
  4. The drag module is connected under Initialise mycobot module, modify the speed as required, here it is set to 70.
     
  5. In Time, select Sleep module
     
  6. Set the time to 2 seconds to give the time for the jaws to move.
     
  7. Repeat the selection of the Status Settings and Sleep modules to change the Status Settings module to off.
     
  8. Click on the green run icon in the upper right corner to see the jaws open and close once.

• Programming Development:

  Programming development of jaws using python. python download

  • Create a new python file: Ctrl + Alt + T Open the command line and type:

    gedit grip.py
    

    

    The file name can be changed as required

  • for function programming:

    The codes are listed below:

    • M5 Version:

    from pymycobot.mycobot import MyCobot
    import time
    
    # Initialise a MyCobot object
    mc = MyCobot("COM3", 115200)
    
    # The following three ways are available to control the jaws open-close-open
    # Way one:
    mc.set_gripper_state(0, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    mc.set_gripper_state(1, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    mc.set_gripper_state(0, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    
    # Way two:
    # mc.set_gripper_value(100, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_gripper_value(0, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_gripper_value(100, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    
    # Way three:  
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 2048)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 1500)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 2048)
    # time.sleep(3)
    

    • Pi version:

    from pymycobot.mycobot import MyCobot
    from pymycobot import PI_PORT, PI_BAUD  # When using the Raspberry Pi version of mycobot, these two variables can be referenced for MyCobot initialisation
    import time
    
    # Initialise a MyCobot object
    mc = MyCobot(PI_PORT, PI_BAUD)
    
    # The following three ways are available to control the jaws open-close-open
    # Way one:
    mc.set_gripper_state(0, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    mc.set_gripper_state(1, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    mc.set_gripper_state(0, 80)
    time.sleep(3)
    
    # Way two:
    # mc.set_gripper_value(100, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_gripper_value(0, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_gripper_value(100, 80)
    # time.sleep(3)
    
    # Way three:
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 2048)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 1500)
    # time.sleep(3)
    # mc.set_encoder(7, 2048)
    # time.sleep(3)
    

  • Save the file and close it, return to the command line terminal and type:

    python grip.py
    

    

    You can see the jaws open-close-open.