Trial Development of a Robotic Hand Based on Soft Robotics

Abstract

This paper describes a soft robotic hand for people with severe disabilities. We used soft material, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), to create the robotic hand. Using the TPU hand with a robotic arm, we experimentally performed to grasp and lift object. 50 kinds of daily needs were tested as grasping object in the experiment. From the experimental results, it is found that the success rates of grasping rectangular-, spheral/circular-, and cylindrical-shaped objects are more than 80 %, and that of grasping indeterminate-shaped objects is less than 77 %.