Analysis of Mechanical Characteristics of Stereolithography Soft-Picking Manipulator and Its Application in Grasping Fruits and Vegetables

Aiming at the issues of complex manufacturing processes and unstable bonding after individual in current soft manipulator forming methods, this study investigated mechanical characteristics a pneumatically driven soft-picking formed by stereolithography (SLA) process evaluated its application grasping fruits vegetables. The mainly consists three actuators designed an integrated folded structure to simplify compared conventional one. A finite element model (FEM) actuator was created analyze bending deformation capability under different pressures, simulated results match well with experimental ones. Under 60 kPa pressure, maximum force for fingertip- envelope-grasping is 3.94 N 8.87 N, respectively. tests several vegetables weights sizes were examined, showed that has strong adaptability. For spherical elongated vegetables, completion time approximately 8.59 ± 1.26 s 10.99 1.79 s, respectively, irregularly shaped ones, pressure increased accordingly stability. This may provide basis development sorting picking