Structure design and prototype test of flexible swallowing manipulator
                                                  DONG Zengya1, GAO Qian2, GAO Guohua1, WANG Hao1
(1.College of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics Technology, Beijing University of Technology,Beijing 100124, China; 2. Beijing Productivity Center, Beijing 100088, China)

Abstract: In order to solve the problem that the fruit epidermis is easily damaged during the process of harvesting, a flexible manipulator with structural simplification and swallowing function was proposed based on the flexible 3D printing material. The swallowing action flow of a flexible manipulator was analyzed. A single wrist connecting rod parameter was established by combining the DH coordinate method and the constant curvature deformation, then the kinematic equations of the single wrist were obtained. On the basis of the prototype of the flexible manipulator, the shape variables of the pneumatic components were tested, and the relationship between the driving angle and the driving pressure was obtained by using Matlab to fit the data. The process of grasping tomato by flexible manipulator was captured by camera. The angle of driving element was obtained by GetData, and the relationship between grasping process and driving angle was obtained. The experimental results show that the favorable grasping and swallowing effect of soft fruit can be achieved by changing the driving angle.

Key words: flexible manipulator; swallowing; structural design; kinematics; 3D printing