Gripping Device for Heavy and Deformable Materials Handling: Concept, Design, Selection and Test

Nowadays the manipulation of jute coffee sacks is performed manually, because of the lack of specific grippers able to grasp this type of object. Hence, a set of concepts have been designed and developed to test the functionality of new devices, specifically intended to be used for the grasping of jute coffee sacks. Grippers have then been ranked through a Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method, in order to identify the best gripping tools for the handling of non-rigid materials. Finally, one of the most promising grippers has been designed and tested on real scale jute coffee sacks.