A Study on Modular Design of End Effector

In this paper, we present a study on modular end effector systems. As the available services of robots grow, robots need to carry out different tasks for various purposes. To carry out these tasks in different environments, flexibility and reusability of the robot system are the most important factors. Therefore, in this study we consider the three following conditions. First, the size of the end effector module is less than or equal to a regular adult male. Second, degrees of freedom of the end effector are easily added and removed according to a given task. Last, the end effector is configured as a master-slave-based control architecture to enable smooth control between each module. The manufactured end effector module is actuated by a wire-driven mechanism, and the end joint is configured as a three-axis load cell. Finally, an end effector is configured by combining three manufactured modules, and experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance.