New models for a class of adhesive grippers. The hemivariational inequality approach (Q1368280)

A hemivariational inequality model for adhesive grasping problems is proposed and studied. The unilateral frictionless and frictional contact effects between the fingertips and the grasping object that lead to linear complementarity problems with singular matrices for the study of static equilibrium of the gripper-object system are generalized to cover adhesive multifingered grippers. Adhesive effects are modelled by appropriately defined, generally nonconvex, yield sets in the space of contact stresses, friction stresses, gaps or frictional slips and their combinations. We give solvability conditions that guarantee the existence of a solution to the gripper problem.