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Published Online: 26 July 2024

A Variable Stiffness Bioinspired Swallowing Gripper Based on Particle Jamming

Publication: Soft Robotics

Abstract

As the chameleon tongue swallows the food, it wraps the entrapped meat around the food, ensuring that it is completely enclosed and preventing it from falling off. Inspired by swallow behavior, this article introduces the design, manufacture, modeling, and experimentation of a variable stiffness swallowing gripper (VSSG). The VSSG is comprised of an intimal membrane, an adventitial membrane, and an internal medium of particles and liquid water. This gripper integrates swallowing behavior with a particle jamming mechanism, exhibiting both soft and rigid state. In the soft state, it gently swallows objects by folding its intimal and adventitial membranes. In the rigid state, the bearing capacity is enhanced by promoting particle jamming phenomenon through pumping out liquid water. Therefore, the proposed gripper has the capability to mitigate the issue of extrusion force applied on the object, while simultaneously enhancing the load-bearing capacity of swallowing gripper. In this article, the swallowing principle of the VSSG is analyzed, the mathematical model of the holding force and extrusion force is deduced, and preliminary experiments are carried out to verify the actual gripping effect of the gripper. The experimental results demonstrate that the VSSG can successfully swallow objects of different shapes in the soft state, exhibiting excellent flexibility and adaptability. The carrying capacity of the gripper in the rigid state increased approximately twofold compared with its soft state. In addition, several swallowing grippers with different filling medium were comparatively studied, and the results show that the VSSG has a large load-bearing capability.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Soft Robotics
Soft Robotics
PubMed: 39058669

History

Published online: 26 July 2024

Topics

Authors

Affiliations

Mingge Li
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
Xiaoming Huang
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
Quan Liu
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
Zhongjun Yin [email protected]
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.

Notes

Address correspondence to: Zhongjun Yin, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China [email protected]

Authors’ Contribution

M.L.: Conceptualization, writing—original draft, and project administration. X.H.: Formal analysis and methodology. Q.L.: Investigation, software, and visualization. Z.Y.: Writing—review and editing.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Funding Information

This work was not supported by funds.

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