Versatile Gripper Inspired by the Chameleon Tongue

Innovation: Industry

Festo

2015

Image: Jesper Aggergaard / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Capture, Absorb, or Filter Solids

Some living systems must secure solid particles such as sediment, usually to keep the particles from hindering their health or activity. The most common way in which they do this is through filtering. To be effective, a filtering system must be appropriate to the sizes of solid particles to be captured and must capture only what is needed. It must also be effective in the appropriate media–air, water, or sometimes solids like soil. An example is mangroves, which are trees that grow along ocean coasts. Their root system slows down and settles sediment out of the water, building up soil to support the mangrove ecosystem.

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Manage Compression

When a living system is under compression, there is a force pushing on it, like a chair with a person sitting on it. When evenly applied to all sides of a living system, compression results in decreased volume. When applied on two sides, it results in deformation, such as when pushing on two sides of a balloon. This deformation can be temporary or permanent. Because living systems must retain their most efficient form, they must ensure that any deformation is temporary. Managing compression also provides an opportunity to lessen the effects of other forces. Living systems have strategies to help prevent compression or recover from it, while maintaining function. For example, African elephant adults weigh from 4,700 to 6,048 kilograms. Because they must hold all of that weight on their four feet, the tissues of their feet have features that enable compression to absorb and distribute forces.

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Brochures

Festo FlexShapeGripper
857.7 KB PDF

Patents

The FlexShapeGripper from Festo is a more energy-efficient and reliable adaptive shape gripper that encloses objects to fit around them.

Benefits

Versatile gripping abilities
Adaptable

Applications

Production
Manufacturing

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption

The Challenge

Manufacturing is going through an automation revolution, and robots need to have the precision and capability of a human in order to create a reliable step in the process. Movements such as gripping and picking up objects can prove challenging, and can use a lot of time and resources if done improperly.

Innovation Details

The FlexShapeGripper consists of a double-acting cylinder, of which one chamber is filled with compressed air whilst the second one is permanently filled with water. This second chamber is fitted with elastic silicone moulding, which equates to the chameleon’s tongue. During the gripping procedure, a handling system guides the gripper across the object so that it touches the article with its silicone cap. Simultaneously, the handling system guides the gripper further across the object. In doing so, the silicone cap wraps itself around the object to be gripped, which can be of any shape, resulting in a tight form fit. The elastic silicone allows a precise to a wide range of different geometries. The high static friction of the material generates a strong holding force.

Energy-free holding even with multiple objects. Photo: Festo.

The FlexShapeGripper can hold a variety of objects. Photo: Festo.

Biological Model

A chameleon can catch all kinds of insects by putting its tongue over the respective prey and securely enclosing it. Once the chameleon has its prey in its sights, it lets its tongue shoot out like a rubber band. Just before the tip of the tongue reaches the insect, it retracts in the middle, while the edges continue to move forward. This allows the tongue to adapt to the shape and size of the respective prey and firmly enclose it. The prey sticks to the tongue and is snapped back into the chameleon’s mouth.

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