A novel underactuated hand with adaptive robotic fingers

Abstract

This paper presented the concept of adaptation and underactuation applied to robotic grippers for manipulations. In order that the gripper can grasp the objects of different shapes, the adaptive and underactuated mechanism without any driving system in the joints was used. The main objective of this work is the fundamental analysis of this underactuated finger, including the dimensional design, kinetostatic analysis and performance evaluation. Firstly, the forces of the phalanges at the finger were calculated. Then, the performance of the mechanism was evaluated by the relationship between the driving force and the contact force, the stability of grasping and the dexterity of fingers. The results showed that the proposed self-adaptive and underactuated gripper can perform operations like human hands.