This technology is a longitudinally deployable vacuum suction cup that automatically deploys and grips objects by adapting to their position and orientation without the need for separate sensing or control, utilizing a mechanism that retracts the gripper body using vacuum pump negative pressure and expands it through external atmospheric pressure.
Conventional rigid cylindrical grippers cannot grip 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 system combining 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 positioned between the body and an internal hose. This allows the gripper to automatically retract and generate gripping force upon contact 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 equipment.
This invention was developed with support from the Human-Centered Soft Robot Technology Research Center of the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the development of collaborative assistive robot arms using foldable hybrid-actuated soft robot technology from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
US2025-0375903A1
