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.
Abstract (translated)
本文介绍了一种能够抓取并识别地形形状的机械手，适用于移动机器人在极端环境中的应用。多肢攀爬机器人配以抓手，在崎岖不平的地面上（如悬崖和洞穴壁）表现有效。然而，在未知自然环境中，这些机器人可能会因误抓表面或由于可抓握点丧失而卡住而导致跌落。为解决这些问题，需要开发一种能够适应不规则地形的自适应机械手，不仅能进行抓取，还能精确测量地形表面形状。 我们研制了一种抓手，它能够抓住凸形和凹形地形，并通过引入针阵列结构同时测量地形形状。我们展示了该抓手的工作机制，并使用原型机对其抓取能力和地形识别性能进行了评估。此外，提出的针阵列设计不仅适用于三维地形测绘，还非常适合不规则地形的自适应抓取。 本文的研究成果为移动机器人在复杂和未知环境中实现高效操作提供了新的可能性。
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08143
