Shell-Type Soft Jig for Holding Objects During Disassembly
Takuya Kiyokawa, Ryunosuke Takebayashi, Kensuke Harada
AI summary
Problem
Conventional rigid jigs require custom fabrication per object and fail under pose errors, while existing flexible jigs lack the stiffness and alignment accuracy needed for reliable automated disassembly.
Approach
The system uses a rigid outer frame enclosing inflatable silicone chambers that expand upon pressurization to gently press, center, and stabilize objects from all directions.
Key results
- Achieved successful component extraction up to 25° angular misalignment for most test objects
- Maintained stable holding forces around 10 N with low trial-to-trial variance
- Outperformed rigid vises and jamming jigs in tolerance to positional and angular errors
- Demonstrated reliable operation across ten diverse electronic components on two robot platforms
Why it matters
Enables more reliable, general-purpose robotic disassembly for electronics recycling by reducing dependence on high-precision perception and custom fixtures.
Abstract
This study addresses a flexible holding tool for robotic disassembly. We propose a shell-type soft jig that securely and universally holds objects, mitigating the risk of component damage and adapting to diverse shapes while enabling soft fixation that is robust to recognition, planning, and control errors. The balloon-based holding mechanism ensures proper alignment and stable holding performance, thereby reducing the need for dedicated jig design, highly accurate perception, precise grasping, and finely tuned trajectory plan- ning that are typically required with conventional fixtures. Our experimental results demonstrate the practical feasibility of the proposed jig through performance comparisons with a vise and a jamming-gripper-inspired soft jig. Tests on ten different objects further showed representative successes and failures, clarifying the jig’s limitations and outlook.