Underactuated Soft Gripper for Helping Humans in Harmful Works

Robotics and automation are essential to improve life quality by assisting and substituting humans in dangerous tasks. Starting from this idea, this paper introduces an innovative gripper that can be employed in the new industrial policy, such as Industry 4.0, in which machines and humans work together. In particular, the paper describes the study of a new soft gripper as a modification of a underactuated gripper previously designed. The new proposed gripper presents an improved design, and it employs more sustainable materials resulting more compliant and adaptable. Therefore, it can be introduced within different industrial and service contexts with the aim of improving the process efficiency and even sustainability, according to SDG9. In particular, the proposed gripper can be used in the recycling and waste disposal chain with a consequent improvement of workers’ health, helping the achievement of SDG3, SDG8 and SDG12. The main feature of the gripper is the modularity, which makes it highly versatile and reconfigurable. reducing waste and obsolescence. In addition, the paper investigates the application of a new environment-friendly material for realising the phalanges comparing it with different materials in terms of structural mechanics by means of FEM analysis. Results demonstrate that both the new design and the employment of the new “green” material make the gripper more efficient and helpful in achieving different Sustainable Development Goals. This is also the basis of a circular perspective for the protection of the environment and the optimization of costs and resources and human lives.