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  • EcoGrip: Developing sustainable gripper solutions for collaborative robotics
    Publication . SOUSA, BRUNO MIGUEL PINTO DE; Campilho, Raul Duarte Salgueiral Gomes; Barbosa, Flávia Vieira
    With the intensification of competition across industries, companies are increasingly adopting strategies to secure a competitive advantage. One such approach is the growing integration of robots into factories to optimize operations and enhance efficiency. However, this shift also results in workforce reductions. For that reason, organizations and policy makers are increasingly tasked with balancing technological advancement and the preservation of employment opportunities. This practice has led to the adoption of collaborative robots, and the development of robotic grippers for collaborative applications which are designed with safety in mind. On the other hand, a completely different topic that influences gripper design is the European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. This regulation aims to reduce the environmental impact of products during the entirety of its lifecycle. Together, the need to enhance gripper safety for collaborative operations and the imperative to reduce their environmental impact have resulted in the demand for a new approach to the gripper development process. With this goal in mind, the objective of this dissertation is to create a methodology for the development of a collaborative robotic gripper that integrates Ecodesign principles to be employed in a practical use case. This use case proposes the creation of a vacuum based collaborative robotic gripper with four suction cups, capable of handling boxes of up to 10 kg with both 150 and 550 mm edge size. To have this capability, the gripper must be adjustable in the X-axis. In regard to weight, the gripper should weigh less than 1.5 kg and be fabricated using acrylonitrile styrene acrylate or polylactic acid. An important design characteristic was that access to the internal components of the gripper should be simple. Through the study of peer-reviewed scientific papers and also an analysis of existing gripper engineering solutions, the new methodological approach for gripper development was formulated. It encompasses six phases: Product planning, Product concept, Product architecture, Product detail, Product Prototyping, and Product testing and improvement. During the course of this work, a model is conceptualized that responds to the use case, safety, and Ecodesign requirements. The developed design is validated through numerical simulations. After validation, a physical prototype is fabricated and tested using additive manufacturing to assess its functionality and performance. The results of these tests also resulted in the creation of an improved prototype. The developed prototype was validated as a proof-of-concept, which demonstrated that Ecodesign requirements could be fully integrated into the gripper development process without compromising functionality or safety.
    2025-10-02Master thesis Open access Show more