Shell-Type Soft Jig for Holding Objects during Disassembly

Abstract: This study addresses a flexible holding tool for robotic disassembly. We propose a shell-type soft jig that securely and universally holds objects, mitigating the risk of component damage and adapting to diverse shapes while enabling soft fixation that is robust to recognition, planning, and control errors. The balloon-based holding mechanism ensures proper alignment and stable holding performance, thereby reducing the need for dedicated jig design, highly accurate perception, precise grasping, and finely tuned trajectory planning that are typically required with conventional fixtures. Our experimental results demonstrate the practical feasibility of the proposed jig through performance comparisons with a vise and a jamming-gripper-inspired soft jig. Tests on ten different objects further showed representative successes and failures, clarifying the jig's limitations and outlook.