The work in this sub-activity focuses primarily on design and validation of end effectors for pharmaceutical scenarios. In this field, precise and delicate manipulation are fundamental aspects due to the fragility of the materials involved and the stringent requirements for accurate handling. To meet these challenges, compliant and soft grippers have become indispensable tools.
Their inherent flexibility and adaptability enable them to securely grasp and manipulate sensitive pharmaceutical components, ensuring the utmost precision while safeguarding the integrity of the products being handled. Thus, we propose to design and test new and innovative end-effectors with adjustable stiffness, offering a gentle or firm grasp, making it versatile for various objects. This gripper can grasp a wide range of objects by harnessing the inherent mechanical intelligence of its patented variable stiffness system inspired to human muscles, without the need for sensors on contact surfaces or specialized algorithms for force control. Moreover, of considerable importance will be the development of a dedicated control interface, which allows simple and versatile programming of the tasks to be carried out, even by technical personnel without high qualifications. This interface will offer rapid and intuitive diagnostics of the device, for ordinary and extraordinary maintenance.
Design and integration of this kind of grippers, with the possibility of customizations of their subparts for special tasks, it’s the key solution for a safe and versatile manipulation in pharmaceutical processes.