MAGPIE: An Open-Source Force Control Gripper With 3D Perception
by Streck Salmon
There are a myriad of robotic arms, but very few choices when it comes to robotic grippers, particularly those with built-in force control and perception. This article explores the outer and inner workings of the MAGPIE gripper, an intelligent robotic object manipulator developed at the Correll Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The gripper’s hardware design was created by Stephen Otto during his Master’s thesis, and the software for planning, perception (utilizing the RealSense with Open3D), and interfacing with the UR5 was developed by Dylan Kriegman as part of his senior thesis. Alongside this, James Watson also made significant contributions to perception and planning software. The original paper, published by Correll, Otto, Kriegman, and Watson, can be found here.