The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 11, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 14, 2011
Hod Lipson, Ithaca, NY (US);
John R. Amend, Jr., Ithaca, NY (US);
Heinrich Jaeger, Chicago, IL (US);
Eric Brown, Merced, CA (US);
Hod Lipson, Ithaca, NY (US);
John R. Amend, Jr., Ithaca, NY (US);
Heinrich Jaeger, Chicago, IL (US);
Eric Brown, Merced, CA (US);
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (US);
Abstract
A passive universal gripper includes a mass of granular material encased in an elastic membrane. Using a combination of positive and negative pressure, the gripper can rapidly grip and release a wide range of objects that are typically challenging for conventional universal grippers, such as flat objects, soft objects, or objects with complex geometries. The gripper passively conforms to the shape of a target object, then vacuum-hardens to grip it rigidly; later using positive pressure to reverse this transition—releasing the object and returning to a deformable state. The apparatus and method enable the fast ejection of objects from the gripper, as well as essentially instantaneous reset time between releasing and gripping.