tir38

A while ago, during a job interview with Dr. Steve Dickerson from CAMotion, I was propositioned with a design problem: design an end effector which could grapple small rolls of tape (imagine the shape of 10 quarters stacked on top of each other). These rolls collect at the bottom of a ramp in rows of four. Each row needs to be grabbed and them moved to a packing station. The moving is performed by CAMotion’s existing hardware/control software and is ancillary to the end effector design problem. It is recommended that the grappling be accomplished by an already developed vacuum-suction system. So the problem simplifies to packaging the vacuum system in the end effector such that it maximizes payload capacity and speed.

I developed a solution which took inspiration from the multiple firing chamber design of the revolver handgun. Six rows of four suction cups are positioned in a circular fashion.

Sketch	Solidworks

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