Automated gripping and handling tasks offer a great rationalization potential but they are still difficult to realize. This book shows you how to ensure process reliability on the basis of combining the right components with advanced application know-how. By explaining basic preconditions of the gripping process and highlighting the milestones of automation history, we guide you all the way through to the center of the handling process - the workpiece. Its ambient conditions and setup are clearly defined as well as the process of setting grippers in motion. Starting with simple linear movements up to multi-axis kinematics, you are provided with the details for practical solutions.

A whole range of current applications illustrates the variety and opportunities of automation in daily business.

Grippers in Motion provides a comprehensive, practice-oriented guide to the fascinating details of automation processes involving gripping and manipulation. This intriguing and colorful book leads the reader from the history of automation and robotics to the fundamentals of the gripping process as well as the interaction of the gripping process with individual workpieces. Boundary conditions and initial situation of the gripping process are defined, and how subsequent motion follows gripping is shown. The implementation of these motion processes, from simple linear motions to the kinematics of multiple axes, is illustrated in a practical way. This practical introduction motivates students and even professionals to learn more about the world of robotic grippers. Grippers in Motion includes a spectrum of real-world applications demonstrating the possibilities and varieties of automation in practice.