The Co-Gripper: A Wireless Cooperative Gripper for Safe Human Robot Interaction

In this paper, we introduce a set of guidelines for the design of grippers suitable for a safe human robot/interaction in cooperative tasks. Modularity, adaptability, robustness, intuitive control, limited weight are some of the key elements that could allow to effectively spread these devices in industrial and service applications. Following such guidelines, we present the prototype of the Co-Gripper: a robotic device for cooperative manipulation tasks with humans. The gripper is composed of two pairs of fingers, actuated with two motors, that can be controlled in a coordinated way or independently. Each finger has a modular underactuated structure, composed of three phalanges connected by passive joints. The gripper is wireless, so it can be easily connected both to the robotic arms and on passive structures. We designed a wearable wireless control interface composed of a ring and a bracelet allowing a simple and intuitive activation of the gripper without limiting human operator's manipulation capabilities. We performed a set of tests to quantify gripper performance and to exploit its potentialities in human-robot cooperation tasks.