DragonClaw: A low-cost pneumatic gripper with integrated magnetic sensing

Abstract

Advances in robotics and rapid prototyping have spurred interest in soft grippers across diverse fields ranging from medical devices to warehouse robotics. With this growing interest, it is imperative to create straight-forward soft grippers with embedded sensing that are more accessible to people outside of the soft robotics community. The DragonClaw - a 3D-printable, pneumatically actuated, three-fingered dexterous gripper with embedded magnetic tactile sensing - is intended to bridge this gap. The 2-DOF thumb design allows for a range of precision and power grasps, enabling the DragonClaw to complete a modified Kapandji test for dexterous ability. The operating range of the gripper is characterized through experiments on grip strength and finger blocking force. Further, the integrated magnetic sensor, ReSkin, is successfully demon-strated in a closed-loop control task to respond to external disturbances. Finally, the documentation, bill of materials, and detailed instructions to replicate the DragonClaw are made available on the DragonClaw website, encouraging people with wide ranging expertise to reproduce this work. In summary, the novelty of this work is the integration of soft robotic gripper feedback in a form factor that can easily be reproduced by inexpensive, simplified manufacturing methods.