I’m making my own humanoid home assistant robot and I want it to eventually be able to do stuff like cooking, ironing, etc. Therefore, I’d want both fine and heavy motor control. After seeing Astribot S1’s capabilities, it seems a gripper would be better than a hand, especially given my budget constraints. However, Astribot’s design is not publicly available and I’m having trouble finding any affordable, or better yet, 3D-printable, grippers I can use.
I’ve found the BaRiFlex, and I could probably double its torque using a DS3235 servo instead of its GL60, but I’m not sure that’d be enough for heavier objects like an iron given its Fin Ray mechanism.
Does anyone know of any grippers I could use?
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@Flamethrower Welcome to the RobotShop community. The BaRiFlex doesn’t seem to be commercial. RobotShop offers grippers in the following two categories:
How far along are the arm designs? Have you created functional prototypes?
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Hello @cbenson, thanks for replying. The BaRiFlex isn’t commercial, but it’s fully open-source, which is why it initially attracted since my budget is very low, far below the typical price of industrial grippers like the ones you kindly linked. The rest of the arm is actually already printed, and I’ve been testing it with MoveIt2, but the problem is with the gripper; I designed one myself based on this one but it’s impractically weak, which is why I again find myself looking for one I can use.
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What is the payload of the arm, and how much of that payload do you want to be used on the gripper? Have any budget in mind? Unfortunately we don’t have a list of open source grippers - only what has been commercialized. Gripper strength comes down to materials used, motors used and complexity. The simpler the design, the more robust it tends to be.
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@cbenson The arm is extremely powerful and can lift several kg, but mostly I’d want to be able to grab objects up to about 2.5kg (an iron, a heavy pot, etc.), so that’s what the gripper should be able to lift. Also, as it’s two-fingered, it’s important that it’s powerful for grabbing stuff like tools correctly without them slipping. I don’t have a specific budget in mind, but it’s less than 100€, which is why 3D-printable grippers whose main cost is the motor would be my preferred option.
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Keep in mind the weight of the gripper is often included in the payload of an arm, so if the gripper weighs 1Kg, the payload drops from 2.5Kg to 1.5Kg.
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@cbenson No, with the 2.5kg I meant the gripper’s capabilities; I’m not so concerned about the arm itself. What I need is a gripper with a decent gripping force (but budget-friendly).
Nothing specific comes to mind in that price range unfortunately. Curious to know if you end up finding something.
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I think you have to customize the gripper.
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Yeah I’m going to try adapting the 3D-printed BaRiFlex (though not too much) to use it with my DS3235, which hopefully will give me double the rated power. It partially uses a Fin Ray mechanism, but let’s see how it goes…
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