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On Robotic Manipulation of Flexible Flat Cables: Employing a Multi-Modal Gripper with Dexterous Tips, Active Nails, and a Reconfigurable Suction Cup Module

A popular solution for connecting different components in modern electronics, such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc, is the use of flexible flat cables (FFC). Typically, it takes hours of repetition from a highly trained worker, or a high precision autonomous robot with specialised end effectors to reliably manage the installation of these cables. Human workers are prone to error, and cannot work endlessly without a break, while the robots often come with a significant expense, and require a substantial amount of time to program and reprogram. Additionally, the use of sophisticated sensing elements further increases the complexity of the required control system. As a result, the performance and robustness of such systems is far from sufficient, hindering their mass adoption. The manipulation of FFCs is also quite challenging. In this work, we focus on the robotic manipulation of a plethora of flexible cables, proposing a multi-modal gripper with locally-dexterous tips and active fingernails. The fingers of the gripper are equipped with: i) locally-dexterous fingertips that accommodate manipulation-capable degrees of freedom, ii) a combination of Nitinol-based active fingernails and suction cups that allow picking up and handling of cables that rest on flat surfaces, and iii) compliant finger-pads that conform to the object surface to increase grasping stability. The proposed robotic gripper is equipped with a camera and a perception system that allow for the execution of complex cable manipulation and assembly tasks in dynamic environments.