Shell Gripper Heads: Zhongkui Wang Contact: Ryo Kanegae Date: 2018 - Mailing address: Dept. Robotics, Ritsumeikan Univ. Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan Supported by: Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) "An intelligent knowledge processing infrastructure, integrating physical and virtual domains" Associated lab/group:

Project Description

We propose a shell gripper to grasp soft but heavy food materials. A shell gripper consists of a rigid outer shell, with soft pneumatic chambers inside. By applying air pressure, soft chambers will expand, enabling to grasp a food material inside the shell.

Shell gripper picking up a rice cake

Shell gripper moving a rice cake and placing it on a table

Personnel

	Name	Title	Degree
	Kuwayama Taisuke	M2
	Shibahara Yuugo	M1
	Hiroki Aoyama	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Kanegae Ryo	Graduated	Master of Eng.

Publications

• Sachin, Zhongkui Wang, Takahiro Matsuno, and Shinichi Hirai, Analytical Modeling of a Membrane-Based Pneumatic Soft Gripper, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol.7, No.4, pp.10359-10366, 10.1109/LRA.2022.3183794, Oct., 2022
• Zhongkui Wang, Ryo Kanegae, and Shinichi Hirai, Circular Shell Gripper for Handling Food Products, Soft Robotics, Vol.8, Issue 5, https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2019.0140, Oct., 2021

• Hiroki Aoyama, Zhongkui Wang, and Shinichi Hirai, Demolding-Free Casting for Fabricating Inflatable Soft-Rigid Structures, 2025 IEEE Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2025), SwissTech Convention Center, Lausanne, Switzerland, Apr. 23-26, 2025
• Hiroki Aoyama, Wang Zhongkui, and Shinichi Hirai, Shell Gripper Inspired by Human Finger Structure for Automatically Packaging Agricultural Product, 2022 IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids 2022), 10.1109/Humanoids53995.2022.10000125, Okinawa Convention Center, Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan, Nov. 28-30, 2022
• Ryo Kanegae, Zhongkui Wang, and Shinichi Hirai, Easily Fabricatable Shell Gripper for Packaging Multiple Cucumbers Simultaneously, 2020 IEEE Int. Conf. on Real-time Computing and Robotics (IEEE RCAR 2020), pp.188-192, 10.1109/RCAR49640.2020.9303297, online, Sept. 28-29, 2020

• Ryo Kanegae, Zhongkui Wang, and Shinichi Hirai, Annular Shell Gripper of Food Grasping, 2019 IEEE Int. Conf. on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2019), COEX, Seoul, Korea, Apr. 14-18, 2019
• Shinichi Hirai, Soft Robotic Approach to Food Material Manipulation, Workshop on Robotic Food Manipulation (IEEE-RAS Int. Conf. on Humanoid Robots), Hilton Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Oct. 15-17, 2019

Notes

Shell gripper picking various food materials	Shell gripper picking drink can	Shell gripper picking daifuku-mochi	Shell gripper picking daifuku-mochi	Shell gripper turning daifuku-mochi
Shell gripper picking and placing eggs	Shell gripper picking daifuku-mochi	Circuler shell gripper

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