Figure 2. Robotic Gripper in Resting Pose
Robotics show great potential for use in radioactive environments as they can increase efficiency and worker safety. One particular application involves using robotic arms in gloveboxes to handle radioactive materials. The Nuclear and Applied Robotics Group (NRG) of the University of Texas at Austin currently uses a three-fingered Robotiq gripper for their research. The gripper has three typical poses: a pinch pose, a grip pose, and a resting pose (see Figure 2, left). Most moves are performed with the fingers in the resting pose. The fingers take up a lot of space in their resting position which limits the potential moves for the robot arm and decreases performance effectiveness because the robot may be too big to move through a tight space. A robotic gripper with retractable fingers would improve the performance of robotic arms in tight spaces.