Compliant finray-effect gripper for high-speed robotic assembly of electrical components

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel finray-effect gripper with structured compliance designed for high-speed robotic electrical connector assembly, enabling precise alignment and insertion despite tight tolerances and object variability.

Contribution

The paper presents a monolithic finray-effect gripper with structured compliance that improves high-speed connector insertion accuracy and robustness in robotic assembly tasks.

Findings

Achieves up to 7.5 mm tolerance window in connector insertion

Enables high-speed, self-aligned assembly with minimal force

Demonstrates effective handling of surface variation and misalignment

Abstract

Fine assembly tasks such as electrical connector insertion have tight tolerances and sensitive components, limiting the speed and robustness of robot assembly, even when using vision, tactile, or force sensors. Connector insertion is a common industrial task, requiring horizontal alignment errors to be compensated with minimal force, then sufficient force to be brought in the insertion direction. The ability to handle a variety of objects, achieve high-speeds, and handle a wide range in object position variation are also desired. Soft grippers can allow the gripping of parts with variation in surface geometry, but often focus on gripping alone and may not be able to bring the assembly forces required. To achieve high-speed connector insertion, this paper proposes monolithic fingers with structured compliance and form-closure features. A finray-effect gripper is adapted to realize structured (i.e. directional) stiffness that allows high-speed mechanical search, self-alignment in insertion, and sufficient assembly force. The design of the finray ribs and fingertips are investigated, with a final design allowing plug insertion with a tolerance window of up to 7.5 mm at high speed.