PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16160604
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["294", "185000"]

Abstract:
Exemplary embodiments relate to unique structures for robotic end-of-arm-tools (EOATs). According to some embodiments, two or more fingers or actuators may be present on an EOAT, and the actuators may be configured to move (together or separately) to adjust the spacing between the actuators. Some aspects involve techniques for extending and/or retracting a vacuum cup present on the EOAT. Further embodiments, which may be used separately or in conjunction with the previously-described embodiments, apply a secondary inner grip pad to provide a secondary gripping mode for the EOAT. These embodiments may be particularly advantageous when the actuators are soft robotic actuators and the inner grip pad is a relatively more rigid structure than the actuators.

Claim (Index 26):
A soft robotic grasping system for grasping an article, comprising:\n a gripper hub; a finger actuator that applies a first pressure change; a suction cup actuator that applies a second pressure change; an extension actuator that extends away from or retracts toward the hub; a plurality of soft robotic fingers, each soft robotic finger including an elastomeric outer surface surrounding an internal void, and each soft robotic finger being configured to curl in a first degree of freedom when the finger actuator applies the pressure change within the internal voids; a suction cup configured to apply a vacuum force to the article, the suction cup being mounted to the extension actuator and configured to move toward or away from the hub, the suction cup creating a vacuum force when the suction cup actuator applies the second pressure change; and a controller configured to, in a first mode, activate the suction cup actuator and extension actuator to cause the suction cup to contact the article, lift the article by the vacuum force, and retract the article toward the hub, and in a second mode, activate the finger actuator to cause the soft robotic fingers to curl to apply a grasping force to the article.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 14.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.77778
- Patent Class: 294.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['16160580', '15194283', '14944999', '15049815', '15411212']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7468301225107763
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6305675638315604
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7352038666428546
- Mean Citation Score: 317.4463580000001
- Max Citation Score: 649.27325
- Similarity Product: 549.3756596186606

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test