Patent ID: 11951697
Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A scalable area gripper comprising:
a structural frame; and
a plurality of variable vacuum zones coupled to the structural frame, each variable vacuum zone comprising:
(i) three or more vacuum ports;
(ii) two movable barrier elements that are closed and impermeable, and nonintersecting; and
(iii) an actuator assembly configured to move each of the two movable barrier elements across the three or more vacuum ports, to cause the three or more vacuum ports to go between a closed state and an open state, and wherein a number of the three or more vacuum ports is greater than a number of the two movable barrier elements,

wherein one or more of the plurality of variable vacuum zones is configured to be adjusted, to each provide an adjusted vacuum zone that corresponds to a corresponding identified section of a material in a form of a ply section having a start portion and an end portion, and the two movable barrier elements are moved by the actuator assembly to the start portion and to the end portion, respectively, to adjust the adjusted vacuum zone, and
further wherein each adjusted vacuum zone is configured to be positioned adjacent to its corresponding identified section of the material in the form of the ply section, and is configured to be activated to pick up the material in the form of the ply section during a material handling process.