An invention similar to an elephant's trunk has potential benefits for many industries where handling delicate objects is essential, say the UNSW researchers who developed it.
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Nature - including an elephant's trunk - inspired the creation of a new soft fabric robotic gripper by a team of UNSW Engineering researchers, led by Dr Thanh Nho Do, Scientia Lecturer and UNSW Medical Robotics Lab director.
The researchers say the versatile technology could be widely applied in sectors where fragile objects are handled, such as agriculture, food and the scientific and resource exploration industries - even for human rescue operations or personal assistive devices.
Dr Thanh Nho Do, Scientia Lecturer and
UNSW Medical Robotics Lab director, said the gripper could be commercially available in the next 12 to 16 months, if his team secured an industry partner.
He is the senior author of a study featuring the invention, published in
Advanced Materials Technologies this month.
Dr Do worked with the study's lead author and PhD candidate
Trung Thien Hoang, Phuoc Thien Phan, Mai Thanh Thai and his collaborator
Scientia Professor Nigel Lovell, Head of the
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering.
"Our new soft fabric gripper is thin, flat, lightweight and can grip and retrieve various objects - even from confined hollow spaces - for example, a pen inside a tube," Dr Do said.
"This device also has an enhanced real-time force sensor which is 15 times more sensitive than conventional designs and detects the grip strength required to prevent damage to objects it's handling.
"There is also a thermally-activated mechanism that can change the gripper body from flexible to stiff and vice versa, enabling it to grasp and hold objects of various shapes and weights - up to 220 times heavier than the gripper's mass."
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