Abstract

While suction cups are widely used in Robotics, the literature is underdeveloped when it comes to the modelling and simulation of the suction phenomenon. In this paper, we present a novel physically-based approach to simulate the behavior of active suction cups. Our model relies on a novel formulation which assumes the pressure exerted on a suction cup during active control is based on constraint resolution. Our algorithmic implementation uses a classification process to handle the contacts during the suction phenomenon of the suction cup on a surface. Then, we formulate a convenient way for coupling the pressure constraint with the multiple contact constraints. We propose an evaluation of our approach through a comparison with real data, showing the ability of our model to reproduce the behavior of suction cups. Our approach paves the way for improving the design as well as the control of robotic actuators based on suction cups such as vaccum grippers.

Highlights

  • Suction cups are widely used in Robotics to achieve interactions with nearby objects or to manipulate tools for interacting with the environment

  • It can be achieved with a constraint-based formulation, revealing a quadratic problem (QP) [9] [10] or a complementarity problem (CP)

  • The suction cup is simulated using the Finite Element Method (FEM) while the pressure is modeled with a constraint under the suction cup

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Suction cups are widely used in Robotics to achieve interactions with nearby objects or to manipulate tools for interacting with the environment. Few methods have been proposed as of today for simulating the behavior of suction cups (see Section II). The main bottleneck is the handling of deformable objects where the number of contacts between the surface and the suction cup is high, leading to a high computational cost. We propose a novel physically-based model of active suction cup phenomenon using a constraint-based simulation (see Figure 1). We focus on active phenomena where the pressure inside the suction cup is imposed by a regulator. A novel physics model based on a constraint formulation to simulate active suction cup behavior, and especially the pressure inside the suction cup cavity;. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the related work on suction cup modeling, physically-based simulation of deformable objects and contact modeling.

Suction Cup Modeling
Physically-based Simulation of Deformable Objects and Multiple Contacts
Method Overview
Classification of Constrained Zones
Constraint Formulation and Resolution
Implementation and Performances
VALIDATION OF THE MODEL
Real Data and Experimental Setup
Geometry validation
Force validation
CONCLUSION
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