Passive air leakage detection mechanism for enhanced vacuum suction actuator efficiency

This paper proposes a new vacuum suction actuator mechanism that uses an elastic structure to increase vacuum efficiency. A typical problem in the vacuum suction system design might be the diversity of the target object topology, especially when applied for object handling tasks. When several objects must be lifted at once, the efficiency of suction operation could be deteriorated due to the incomplete attachment of suction pads. The situation might be worse when the target objects have uneven surfaces. A new mechanism has been proposed to solve these problems. The newly proposed vacuum suction actuator has passive compliance enabled with standard springs. This mechanism provides a higher enhancement in vacuum distribution, and the entire grasping mechanism successfully maintains the proper level of vacuum. The proposed method should be utilized in a portable vacuum suction-based grasping system with limited vacuum power. The theoretical vacuum efficiency was calculated, and a static simulation was performed. Experiments were conducted comparing the cases where this mechanism and the traditional check valve were used.