Design of a multi-modal end-effector and grasping system: How integrated design helped win the Amazon Robotics Challenge

We present the grasping system behind Cartman, the winning robot in the 2017 Amazon Robotics Challenge. The system was designed using an integrated design methodology and makes strong use of redundancy by implementing complimentary tools, a suction gripper and a parallel gripper. This multi-modal end-effector is combined with three grasp synthesis algorithms to accommodate the range of objects provided by Amazon during the challenge. We provide a detailed system description and an evaluation of its performance before discussing the broader nature of the system with respect to our integrated design philosophy and the key aspects of robotic design proposed by the winners of the first Amazon Picking Challenge. To address the principal nature of our grasping system and the reason for its success, we propose an additional robotic design aspect: 'precision vs. redundancy'. The full design of our robotic system, including the end-effector, is open source and available at http://juxi.net/projects/arc/.