Finite element analysis of a three-fingered robot hand design

Abstract

This paper implements the analysis of material and design structure of a three-fingered robot hand. In previous work, the robot hand was custom-designed for assembly work using SolidWorks software application. The robot hand consists of three 2DOF robot fingers actuated by DC micromotors and a 1DOF hand palm. In this work, finite element analysis (FEA) method is used to analyze the robot structure based on the robot design and the selected materials of robot components. The analysis is executed regarding two categories i.e. the deformation and the stress tests. SolidWorks software is used to review the 3D drawing design of the robot hand while ANSYS Workbench is used to execute the FEA of the drawing design. The analysis of the two categories is made by setting 10 N forces at different directions onto different points of the robot hand design. From the FEA result, critical points indicated with measurements in millimeter and Pascal units for the degree of deformation and stress, respectively, has successfully obtained. It gives important information regarding parts of the robot hand that are prone to damage under higher force application. Thus, this could be used for necessary design improvement and ensuring suitability of robot hand in real application.