Software Module for a Virtual Anthropomorphic Gripper Preshaping

Abstract:

Virtual reality is an important technology in the context of product lifecycle management. Through virtual reality, one offers solutions in the design phase, but also during use, resulting in a significant reduction in time between concept and prototype stage and an overall process optimization increase. Control interfaces of anthropomorphic grippers in virtual environments allow carrying out a series of tests and simulations to validate both a particular design and the configuration of a certain gripping operation. The control interface of an anthropomorphic gripper is also responsible for the connection between the user and the virtual environment providing a set of tools for performing the functional simulation. This paper presents the RoboSIM software module, which is an advanced control interface for a three fingered anthropomorphic gripper. This module was primarily developed for easing the functional simulation of a three fingered gripper in a virtual environment. In order to further decrease the time between concept and prototype, RoboSIM was extended to directly communicate with the real gripper. In this way the functional simulations results can be directly transferred using RoboSIM to the real gripper which will perform the gripping operation accordingly. This novel approach is especially suited for anthropomorphic grippers which are known to have an increased number of degrees of freedom thus their control interfaces becoming very complex.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 162)
• Pages: 326-333
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.162.326
• Online since: March 2012
• Authors: Constantin Catalin Moldovan, Ionel Staretu, Alexandru Mihail Itu
• Keywords: Anthropomorphic Gripper, Preshaping, Software Module, Virtual Reality (VR)

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