I would like to know how to know when the gripper has reached its limits. The product description states that : “It (the gripper?) automatically detects motor stall conditions and stops the motor so that the gripper will always stop at the right moment.”
What kind of sensors does it use to know when to stop? How safe is it to keep sending the open/close signal once the limits have been reached? How can I know that I have an object properly grasped and how far can I push the gripper limits? (considering that the object won’t break at all ).
I am asking this questions because when the robot is outside you can listen to the motors reaching a limit but what happens when the robot is underwater and you can’t listen any motor at all.
The Newton Subsea Gripper has a custom designed PCB with a custom firmware file that senses the current when the brushed motor stalls (stops).
The firmware has been adjusted so it still has enough strength to grip an object, but not enough to break fingers or tear the gripper apart. We have done a few thousand cycles in our tests.
