Sixi Robot Gripper Design Adventures

I thought that the hard part would be making the Six robot arm. Turns out making a two finger gripper is also pretty challenging! I would love to see students take on this challenge to make their own gripper. There’s so many ways to tackle the challenge.

View this post on Instagram

It’s somewhere between a job offer, job interview, and request-for-quote. Point is, robots creating jobs. #jobs #robots #rfq #offer #wtb #silentstepstick #gripper #3dprinting

A post shared by Marginally Clever Robots (@imakerobots) on Aug 11, 2020 at 3:17pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

I thought making the #Sixirobot was the hard part. It turns out making a decent gripper is almost as tough! I think it would make a great beginner robotics project. #story #ongoing #robotics #3dprinted #three #jaw #chuck #threejawchuck #workholding

A post shared by Marginally Clever Robots (@imakerobots) on Aug 21, 2020 at 10:14am PDT

Gripper requirements

The gripper must:

• Attach to the ISO 9409-50-1-M6 hand
• Have two fingers
• Weigh under 1kg
• Be able to pick up at least 1kg and turn it arbitrarily without dropping it
• Not crush soft objects like grapes, eggs, or empty cans
• Have a minimum stroke (movement distance) of 30mm.
• Run at 12v (max 2a) for motor power.
• Run at 5v (max 500ma) for logic.
• Have replaceable fingers that can be customized to different tasks

It would be nice if

• The gripper would use ModBus (RS485) to communicate with the Sixi robot.
• The gripping strength could be controlled by the robot.
• The robot could tell the state of the gripper: position, activity right now, etc.

More to follow as this adventure unfolds! Wish us luck.

Discuss this post in the forums.