Festo Fin Gripper
30-60 min
Ages 8+
What Will You Make?
Make yourself a gripper that is based on a fish’s tailfin!
What Will You Learn?
There is a lot to be discovered in nature. We can learn quite a bit from plants and animals.
Bionics is a made-up word. It is a combination of the words biology and robotics. Bionics studies ways to transfer natural phenomena to technology. After all, over the course of many millions of years nature has developed techniques that humans can learn from. Here it is important to carefully observe plants and animals. For example, swim flippers were modeled on a duck’s feet. Pliers, which can be found in every modern household, were inspired by stag beetles. And the model for this gripper was the tail fin of a bony fish.
Make the Gripper
Print out the pattern
Download the template here. There are two per page. If you cannot print your template on cardstock, glue the whole pattern on construction paper.
Cut it out
Cut out the 4 individual pieces.
Fold it
Fold the ribs and the fin along the dotted lines.
Put it together and squeeze!
Apply glue to the gray areas of the fin. Glue each matching rib in place. For example, “Rib 1” on both “Glue Rib 1” spots.
Join the bottom of the fin together as in the picture.
Pinch a bottom corner to get it to “grip.” Put your thumb on the bottom and other fingers on the side. (Your fingers should be below Rib 3.)
Give it a squeeze!
Extension: Create a claw!
Build a second fin.
Tape the bottom of Fin 1 to the side of Fin 2. They should meet up as in the picture, with the corner of Fin 1 lined up with the level of Rib 3 on Fin 2. When you squeeze the two bottoms together, the claw will close.
What Is Happening Here?
Festo Bionics
Festo is A leading world-wide supplier of pneumatic and electric drive technology for factory and process automation. This project is based on the Robotino. Robotino is made up of a pneumatic drive and three gripping fingers. What is special about these gripping fingers is that they move in just the same way — left and right, up and down — as the tail of a bony fish. If a person pushes against a tail fin with his or her finger, it doesn’t bend away. On the contrary. It bends towards the finger. In other words the gripping fingers are very adaptable. “We call this the Fin Ray Effect,” explains Johannes Stoll of Festo. In this way, it is possible for the gripper to pick up objects that are very different in size.
What' Next?
Robotic Zoo
Visit the robotic zoo of the future today with Maker Camp! You’ll explore everything from bionic kangaroos to an elephant trunk-arm. We chat with fluid power engineer Jacqueline MacPherson and robo-wrangler Andrea Ziomek, both of Festo, to learn how this engineering dream factory looks to the natural world for inspiration in the emerging field of bionics. Meet Festo’s Aqua Jelly, Aqua Penguin, Aqua Ray, the Airacuda, and more! The live hangout was part of Maker Camp 2014.
This fun project is provided by Festo as part of their appearance for Maker Camp 2014.
Materials:
- Construction paper or cardstock
- Glue, glue stick or white glue
- Scissors
