Advances in robotics and rapid prototyping have spurred interest in soft grippers across diverse fields ranging from medical devices to warehouse robotics. With this growing interest, it is imperative to create affordable soft grippers with embedded sensing that are more accessible to people outside of the soft robotics community. The DragonClaw — a 3D-printable, pneumatically actuated, three-fingered dexterous gripper with embedded magnetic tactile sensing — is intended to bridge this gap. The 2-DOF thumb design allows for a range of precision and power grasps, enabling the DragonClaw to complete a modified Kapandji test for dexterous ability. The operating range of the gripper is characterized through experiments on grip strength and finger blocking force. Further, the integrated magnetic sensor, ReSkin, is successfully demonstrated in a closed-loop control task to respond to external disturbances. Finally, the documentation, bill of materials, and detailed instructions to replicate the DragonClaw are made available on the DragonClaw website, encouraging people with wide ranging expertise to reproduce this work. In summary, the novelty of this work is the integration of soft robotic gripper feedback in a form factor that can easily be reproduced by inexpensive, obtainable manufacturing methods.

The DragonClaw library can be found on GitHub at this link.

What is needed to make and use your DragonClaw?:

Item+Link	Cheaper Alternatives
Prusa i3 MK3S+ 3D Printer	The printer brand can be substituted
Bondtech BMG Prusa Extruder	This part is useful for soft filaments, but optional
NinjaTek Chinchilla Filament	N/A
Sil-Poxy Smooth-On	N/A
Smooth-On Dragon Skin 10 NV	N/A
Magnequench MQP-15-7-20065(~80 mesh) Bonded Neo Powder	N/A
Magnet-Physiks Magnetization Process	Optional outsourced process, but a regular magnet can work
AR310 Thinky Planetary Mixer	Hand-mixing works just fine
Bel-Art™ Space Saver Vacuum Desiccators	Using heat (like a hairdryer) can remove the bubbles
ZENY Economy Vacuum Pump	Not needed if the Desiccator is not used
QT Py - SAMD21 Dev Board Adafruit	N/A
Qwiic Mux Breakout - 8 Channel Sparkfun	N/A
Flexible Qwiic Cable - 100mm	N/A
Full Assembly of Flexible Sensor Circuits PCBWay	Can be hand-soldered
MLX90393 Melexis Magentometers	Can use a similar magnetometers
Teensy 4.0 Microcontroller PJRC	N/A
Full Assembly of Pneumatic Control Circuit PCBWay	Can be hand-soldered
Proportional Pressure Regulators FESTO	Can use any proportional controllers that supply >=2bar (200kPa)
Tube Fittings FESTO	N/A
Filter Regulator FESTO	Can use any regulator that supplies >=2bar (200kPa)
4mm Diameter Tubing FESTO	Can use any 4mm flexible tubing
Stealth Ultra Quiet Air Compressor	Any compressor would work

Citation
Vani Sundaram, Raunaq Bhirangi, Mark Rentschler, Abhinav Gupta and Tess Hellebrekers. DragonClaw: A low-cost pneumatic gripper with integrated magnetic sensing. RoboSoft 2023.

[Bibtex]

[IEEE RoboSoft 2023]

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