Design of a 2-DOFs Gripper Mechanism with Linear Actuation

The field of industrial automation has always led the development of new solutions, both software and hardware ones, to the ever present problem of enhancing efficiency in manufacturing. In particular, automated machines often use complex and innovative mechanical solutions to move, at high speed, objects to be manipulated along the productive line. This paper investigates the design and the implementation of a prototype of a gripper, based on the use of planar articulated mechanisms. The gripper is meant to be actuated by two translating elements, and has two degrees of freedom allowing it to perform, at the same time, the gripping action and the displacement of the grasped object. The results include the kinematic and static force analysis of the mechanism, and the working prototype of the mechanism.