TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Balloons and Coffee Lead to Robotic Breakthrough

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 10-28-10 | Comments

A new robotic gripper is capable of handling a diverse range of objects, even raw eggs and coins. The device could be used in a wide array of environments, from military combat to factories.

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Balloons and Coffee Lead to Robotic Breakthrough
One of the biggest challenges in creating true humanoid forms in fields like robotics is successfully imitating the human hand. While the hand is amazingly deft at gripping, moving and placing objects, traditional robots are severely limited in these tasks. Now, thanks to some unusual ingredients, robots may soon be equipped with gripping machines.

Graduate student John Amend, left, and Associate Professor Hod Lipson with the universal robotic gripper (Robert Barker/University Photography).

Made from coffee grounds and balloons, the "universal gripper" conforms to different objects' shapes rather than being designed to deal with particular objects. In the design, a robotic arm is outfitted with an everyday party balloon filled with coffee grounds. When pressed against an object, the balloon molds to its shape. A vacuum then strengthens the grip by sucking the air out of the balloon. When the vacuum releases, the balloon becomes soft again and the object is released.

The unique properties of coffee grounds allow the device to be particularly successful. According to the scientists, coffee is a type of particulate material, made up of large collections of individually solid particles. Particulate materials are characterized by a quality called jamming transition: When loose, the grounds are fluidlike, but when packed tightly, they act like a solid. This characteristic is what causes vacuum-packed containers of coffee to seem as hard as bricks.

Many other types of particulate materials exist, and the scientists experimented with rice, couscous and even ground-up tires. They ended up using coffee because it jams well but is also lightweight.

"The ground coffee grains are like lots of small gears," explains Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical engineering and computer science. "When they are not pressed together, they can roll over each other and flow. When they are pressed together just a little bit, the teeth interlock, and they become solid."

Next: Excellent Performance with All Objects >>

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