Tecan Trading Ag

Mirco Brennwald

Marcel Aschwanden

André Häfelfinger

Ermal Abdulahi

Christian Berweger

Arrangements of a gripper finger and a clamp for use in an automated parallel gripper are provided. The arrangements will include first and second gripper fingers that are moveable in a direction of translation (y), whereby the clamp is connected to the gripper finger at an underside thereof, so as to be rotational about a vertical axis of rotation. The clamp has a front face with a contact surface for engagement with a lateral edge of an item to be gripped and has a default orientation in which the front face is parallel to a lateral direction (x) that is perpendicular to the direction of translation (y) and to the vertical rotation axis. The arrangements are additionally provided with a self-alignment feature which includes first and second biasing mechanisms arranged at either side of the rotation axis in lateral direction (x). Each biasing mechanism has a first part connected to the finger and a second part connected to the clamp and is configured to exert a centering force that urges the first and second parts of each biasing mechanism into alignment with each other. When the clamp is in the default orientation, each biasing mechanism is preloaded to exert an equal moment load on the clamp in the direction of translation (y).

Parallel gripper with adaptive clamping surfaces

A robotic liquid handling system may be provided comprising a robotic arm and a controller configured to control the robotic arm to position and operate the robotic arm in a workspace of the robotic liquid handling system. The controller may be configured to, as part of a liquid handling task, control the robotic arm to open a reagent reservoir, wherein the reagent reservoir has an opening which is sealed by a foil. The controller may be configured to control the robotic arm to open the foil by controlling the robotic arm to, using a cutting tip (), cut at least two flaps in the foil, and using a blunt protrusion, push the at least two flaps downwards into the reagent reservoir to clear at least part of the opening of the reagent reservoir. Further aspects of the invention relate to a computer-implemented method for controlling a robotic arm and to an opening tool () comprising the cutting tip and the blunt protrusion.

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Stäfa, Switzerland

Mirco Brennwald