2 Research project for the development of new gripper systems PowerGripper is a university project conducted as part of the Bionic Learning Network. Together with renowned educational establishments, institutes and development companies, Festo is investigating the transfer of biological principles to technology in order to generate innovative solutions for industry. Kinematics of the bird’s skull The concept of the PowerGripper dates back to a lecture by Prof. Dr. Martin Fischer, Professor of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. In his presentation on the topic of gripping systems in biology he discussed, among other things, the complex kinematics of the bird’s beak, which had been described in 1994 by Dr. Cornelius Schilling and Dr. Klaus Zimmermann, both of the Ilmenau University of Technology. In mechanical terms, this kinematic principle is referred to as Watt’s linkage. It provided the basis for the consideration of gripper systems: the variants that were realised took the form of planar grippers, spatial grippers and point grippers. The following is a description of the planar gripper. Bionic principles and new production processes In the PowerGripper project, the developers implemented this bionic principle using the Fluidic Muscle from Festo and combined it with the production technique of metal laser sintering. Realisation with the pneumatic muscle The DMSP-5 Fluidic Muscle is the driving force behind the gripper concept. It employs the principle of antagonistic muscles, in which flexor and extensor muscles operate in pairs. When the pneumatic muscle is filled with air, it increases in diameter and is contracted in length. The muscle allows flowing, elastic movement for implementation of the principle of Watt’s linkage. Optimised force-to-weight ratio With this Watt’s linkage, relatively large opening strokes can be realised within a highly compact installation space. Thanks to the lightweight structure, along with the the very light pneumatic muscle and a titanium alloy (Ti6Al-4V) as the material for the basic components, the PowerGripper from Festo attains a very favourable force-to-weight ratio. Bird-skull kinematics: model for the PowerGripper Transfer to technology: the gripping principle of Watt’s linkage
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