Robot hand for lifting apertured panel

Claim 1

A hand for a robot adapted particularly to pick up and hold a panel having a topside, an underside, and an aperture therethrough defined by an aperture wall, comprising: a housing mounted on an arm of the robot and having a locating surface; first and second tong fingers having upper ends, pivot portions pivotally mounted on the housing and lower ends depending beyond the locating surface of the housing; each of said tong fingers having a generally spherical knuckle facing in the opposite direction from the knuckle of the other tong finger and cooperating therewith to define opposing upper hemispherical cam faces and opposing lower hemispherical cam faces; operating means associated with the upper ends of the first and second tong fingers and adapted to pivotally move the tong fingers between pinched together contracted positions in which the upper ends of the tong fingers also depend below the locating surface of the housing and the knuckles are smaller than the aperture to permit insertion of the tong fingers through the panel aperture, and spread apart positions in which the upper ends of the tong fingers are raised above the locating surface of the housing and the panel is captured between the upper hemispherical cam faces of the tong finger knuckles and the housing locating surface; said lower hemispherical cam faces cooperating upon insertion of the tong fingers to engage the aperture wall in the event that the panel is misaligned with respect to the tong fingers to shift the panel to facilitate insertion, and said upper heimspherical cam faces cooperating upon movement of the tong fingers to the spread apart position to engage against the underside of the panel and lift the panel into engagement with the locating surface of the housing; and subsequent return movement of the tong fingers to the pinched together contracted position again moving the tong finger upper ends to the position depending below the locating surface of the housing to engage with the topside of the panel and thereby assure that the panel is dislodge from the locating surface and ejected from the robot hand.