Ongoing development in robots, more specifically robotic grippers, has focused on making them capable of gripping a variety of shapes and sizes, like a human hand could – as this is something they can struggle with, particularly when it comes to harvesting crops.
Researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) recently developed and introduced a soft robotic gripper, ‘ROtation-based Squeezing grippEr (ROSE)’ with the hopes that it will become an essential tool in agriculture.
IoT in agriculture has found its uses in deploying sensors to monitor parameters like soil health and moisture, and robotics themselves are experiencing a surge in demand as a combination of labour shortages and increased efficiency has made robotics viable for tasks like planting and picking crops.
Conventional robotic grippers, however, find it difficult to grasp the different shapes, properties and delicate nature of crops, and as a result there has been increased demand for grippers with this ability.
Grippers made of soft materials – and consequently won’t damage the more delicate crops – are a potential viable solution, however current methods for adapting these grippers rely on complex control and planning generated by data-based models. These models are incredibly data-hungry.
Associate Professor Van Anh Ho, along with Assistant Professor Nyugen Huu Nhan and doctoral course student Nyugan Thanh Koi developed ‘ROSE’.
“ROSE takes inspiration from the blooming states of a rose to generate grasping action. It offers a simpler approach to real-farm harvesting by gently grasping objects using a unique ‘wrinkling’ phenomenon,” explained Professor Ho. “Unlike conventional grippers, ROSE doesn’t require complex control and planning strategies to adapt to various agricultural products with diverse shapes, sizes, and textures.”
ROSE is made up of a cup-shaped chamber formed by two soft elastomer layers, with the interior and outer layers separated. Rotating the inner layer using an external motor creates a deformation in the layers, more specifically wrinkle-like folds, a process known as ‘wrinkling’. In doing so, it shrinks the central space in ROSE and allows it to gently grasp any object in the space.
To improve the mechanism, the researchers studied the wrinkling process using a method-based simulation model, which showed that there was a correlation between features including thickness, diameter and height. More simply, finding the right separation between the layers impacted on its grasping performance.
The simulations performed demonstrated the importance of the ratio between the gripper’s diameter and height. These findings were validated through several experiments, confirming ROSE’s ability to perform tasks that conventional grippers would find challenging.
ROSE’s practical applications in agriculture were tested in deploying it to harvest strawberries and mushrooms. In multiple trials, ROSE showed high success rates in picking both firm and delicate crops. It was also able to grasp entire clumps of mushrooms without damaging any part, provided the clump size fell within the gripper’s capacity.
“ROSE is one of the first grippers to utilis buckling deformation as a gripping method, challenging the conventional mindset that the buckling phenomenon is an undesired feature,” said Professor Ho. “Moreover, the practical application of ROSE in agricultural settings is a game-changer for real-farm harvesting. ROSE’s ability to adapt to varying textures and shapes makes it highly effective in these tasks. This not only improves efficiency but can also address the growing labour shortages in agriculture, particularly in regions with ageing populations.”
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