The Development of Automatic Gripper Change System for Industrial Robots

Abstract

This paper discusses about mechanical design and the development of automatic gripper change system, for medium load (6 kg) joint arm robot, Staubli RX-90 robot manipulator. It allows the robot to change its grippers automatically without assistance from operator. As a result, this will decrease the setup time and increase the robot’s flexibility in handling various objects and tools. The system consists of two main components, which are end effectors attach/detach mechanism and gripper’s storage table. The mechanism consists of two main parts, which are master subassembly and tool sub-assembly. Master sub-assembly is mounted on robot wrist and function as housing the pneumatic lines as well as the locking mechanism. Tool sub-assembly provides the rods for locking mechanism, and attached to the corresponding gripper. The attach/detach components are designed by using SolidWork 3D Mechanical software in order to provide mechanical design and to simulate the attach/detach mechanism. The workcell is designed by using Robo Studio Simulation software to provide the layout of robot working area and to simulate the interaction among the facilities of the cell. The result of simulation studies shows that both mechanism and layout has achieved the design objectives. The attach/detach process can be provided accurately. The location of the facilities in the workcell allows the gripper change process to be provided efficiently. Although many automatic gripper change systems may be available in the market today, the mechanism developed in this research is predicted to have the advantage of simplicity in design and fabrication processes, large degree of flexibility and expandability.