This technology is a longitudinally deployable vacuum suction cup that automatically deploys and grips objects by adapting to their position and tilt without the need for separate sensing or control, utilizing a mechanism that contracts the gripper body via vacuum pump negative pressure and expands it through the intake of external atmospheric pressure.
Conventional rigid cylindrical grippers cannot grasp tilted objects, while standard bellows-type grippers are limited to objects at distances shorter than their initial length, and both require additional equipment to accurately detect the position and angle of objects in unstructured environments.
This technology proposes a pneumatic control system using a vacuum pump and a three-way valve, a deployable gripper body made of flexible polymer, and an external spring placed between the body and an internal hose. This configuration allows the gripper to automatically contract and generate gripping force upon contact with an object without sensor feedback. It enables gripping without a separate vision system in environments where object shapes and placements are inconsistent, such as logistics picking, food packaging, and agricultural sorting, significantly reducing the implementation costs of automated facilities.
US2025-0375903A1
