An Underactuated Robotic Gripper with Flowability and Variable Stiffness for Food Bin-Picking

Abstract

This paper presents a single-motor underactuated gripper with variable stiffness, designed for food bin-picking tasks. The gripper employs highly compliant fingers that can passively adapt to cluttered environments and enclose target objects. Upon grasping, tendon-driven actuation increases structural stiffness, enabling low-damage, error-tolerant manipulation. Experiments on a variety of food items demonstrate robust grasping performance and stable object handling.