A Pin-Array Structure for Gripping and Shape Recognition of Convex and Concave Terrain Profiles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel pin-array gripper that enables mobile robots to adaptively grasp and accurately recognize the shape of convex and concave terrains in extreme environments, enhancing terrain mapping and navigation.

Contribution

The paper presents a new pin-array structure for a gripper that can grasp irregular terrains and simultaneously measure their shape, improving terrain recognition capabilities.

Findings

Effective grasping of convex and concave terrains demonstrated

Accurate terrain shape measurement achieved with the pin-array design

Enhanced 3D terrain mapping for irregular surfaces

Abstract

This paper presents a gripper capable of grasping and recognizing terrain shapes for mobile robots in extreme environments. Multi-limbed climbing robots with grippers are effective on rough terrains, such as cliffs and cave walls. However, such robots may fall over by misgrasping the surface or getting stuck owing to the loss of graspable points in unknown natural environments. To overcome these issues, we need a gripper capable of adaptive grasping to irregular terrains, not only for grasping but also for measuring the shape of the terrain surface accurately. We developed a gripper that can grasp both convex and concave terrains and simultaneously measure the terrain shape by introducing a pin-array structure. We demonstrated the mechanism of the gripper and evaluated its grasping and terrain recognition performance using a prototype. Moreover, the proposed pin-array design works well for 3D terrain mapping as well as adaptive grasping for irregular terrains.