Clothes manipulation by inchworm robot grippers

Abstract

Deformable objects manipulation by robot is very challenging. We focused on clothes manipulation as an example and applied edge tracing method in order to search for corners of particular clothes. Tracing in this paper context involves tracing the towel's edge, with the robot arm movement based on feedback from sensors. Development of special tools for deformable object manipulation is also considered to be important as well and must consider the properties of the deformable objects. We designed inchworm type grippers for the purpose of clothes manipulation. This paper proposes a unique tracing method for towel spreading using the inchworm grippers. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of both the proposed method and the grippers. ©ISAROB 2007.