Underactuated versatile gripper for the cleaning of nuclear sites

This paper presents a ten-degree-of-freedom robotic gripper developed for the cleaning of nuclear sites. First, the principle of underactuation is briefly recalled. The contingencies of the application are exposed and the possible geometric arrangements of the fingers are investigated. The design of the underactuated 3-phalanx fingers is then presented. The mechanisms and transmissions used to drive the fingers are also discussed. Finally, a prototype and a functional gripper are shown and test results clearly demonstrate the capabilities of the robotic gripper.