Design of a novel mechatronic fatigue testing system to test the functional lifespan of a compliant mechanism kiwifruit gripper-end effector device

Abstract

There is limited research into the fatigue life of compliant mechanisms, and a lack of standardized equipment to fatigue test such structures. This paper presented PneuGrip 2, a novel mechatronic fatigue testing system designed to fatigue test compliant mechanism robotic kiwifruit grippers. The design of its interacting mechanical, electronic, and control systems arc outlined. A compliant gripper is fatigue tested for one million cycles, replicating the forces experienced in a typical harvesting motion. The compliant mechanism showed no degradation in performance after the test. While the study demonstrated a promising lifetime for the gripper, further testing is required to establish statistical significance and fully quantify its service life.