Patent Document ID: 9708135
Application ID: 14873844
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A gripper assembly comprising: (a) an actuation arm comprising an actuation arm tip; (b) a sensing arm comprising a sensing arm tip; (c) a rotary actuation arm flexure bearing operatively connected to the actuation arm; (d) an actuation arm guiding flexure operatively connected to the actuation arm bearing; (e) driving means for imparting a driving displacement along a y-axis direction to the actuation arm bearing through the actuation arm guiding flexure, the actuation arm flexure bearing being configured to convert the driving displacement in the y-axis direction into displacement of the actuation tip in an x-axis direction; (f) a rotary sensing arm flexure bearing operatively connected to the sensing arm and being configured to convert displacement of the sensing arm tip in the x-axis direction into displacement in the y-axis direction; and (g) first and second force sensor flexures operatively linked to the rotary sensing arm flexure bearing in series and being configured to detect y-axis displacement of the sensing arm tip caused both by contact of the sensing arm tip with environment and by conversion of x-axis displacement of the sensing arm tip by the rotary sensing arm flexure bearing whereby the first and second force sensor flexures can collectively detect both a grasping force F g of the gripper and an interaction force F e caused by the gripper interacting with the environment, wherein the first force sensor flexure has a lower stiffness than the second force sensor flexure and a measuring range that is smaller than that of the second force sensor flexure such that the first force sensor flexure can measure an initial displacement of the sensing arm tip in a lower measuring range with a first sensitivity and the second force sensor flexure assembly can measure a further displacement of the sensing arm tip in a larger measuring range with a second sensitivity that is lower than the first sensitivity.