Ants are highly capable of grasping objects in clutter, and we have recently observed that this involves substantial use of their forelegs. The forelegs, more specifically the tarsi, have high friction microstructures (setal pads), are covered in hairs, and have a flexible under-actuated tip. Here we abstract these features to test their functional advantages for a novel low-cost gripper design, suitable for bin-picking applications. In our implementation, the gripper legs are long and slim, with high friction gripping pads, low friction hairs and single-segment tarsus-like structure to mimic the insect's setal pads, hairs, and the tarsi's interactive compliance. Experimental evaluation shows this design is highly robust for grasping a wide variety of individual consumer objects, with all grasp attempts successful. In addition, we demonstrate this design is effective for picking single objects from dense clutter, a task at which ants also show high competence. The work advances grasping technology and shed new light on the mechanical importance of hairy structures and tarsal flexibility in insects.

翻译：蚂蚁在杂乱环境中抓取物体的能力极强，我们最近观察到这一过程大量运用了其前足。具体而言，前足（尤其是跗节）具有高摩擦微结构（刚毛垫）、覆盖着绒毛，并拥有灵活的欠驱动末端。本文将这些特征抽象化，以测试其在一种适用于分拣应用的新型低成本夹爪设计中的功能优势。在我们的实现中，夹爪腿部细长，配备高摩擦抓取垫、低摩擦绒毛及单段仿跗节结构，分别模拟昆虫的刚毛垫、绒毛以及跗节的交互顺应性。实验评估表明，该设计在抓取各类独立日用物品时具有高度鲁棒性，所有抓取尝试均获成功。此外，我们验证了该设计能够有效从密集堆积物中抓取单一物体——蚂蚁在此类任务中也表现出卓越能力。本工作推动了抓取技术的发展，并为昆虫体毛结构与跗节灵活性的机械重要性提供了新的见解。