Design and Automatic Fabrication of Novel Bio-Inspired Soft Smart Robotic Hands

Abstract

Soft material robots are developing rapidly benefited from their inherent flexibility, adaptability and safety compared to rigid-bodied robots. However, most soft robots are unable to offer high force/strength due to the low rigidity of soft materials that they are composed of. Absence of position feedback is another problem for soft robots. In this research, we aim to address these two challenges in a novel designed soft smart robotic hand. The design of this soft hand is also delicately considered to make it 3D printable, which shortens the design cycle and reduces the fabrication time. This hand consists of five fingers and a palm, all of which can be actuated independently. The finger is designed with two chambers: one airtight active chamber which can be actuated by compressed air, one passive chamber filled with loosely arranged particles. During bending actuation, particles inside the passive chamber are squeezed by pressurized air, which causes passive jamming. As a result, the stiffness of the finger is strengthened during bending, which endows the hand with larger force output and load-holding capability. Furthermore, position feedback modules made of conductive elastomers are integrated and co-printed with the finger during fabrication. In this research, a hand prototype is manufactured and several experiments regarding to its characteristics and performance are conducted for evaluation. From experimental results, the soft hand achieves maximum holding weight of 1.452kg with particles and 0.8425kg without particles at same actuation pressure of 450kPa.

A Systematic Literature Review of Industry 4.0 Technologies within Medical Device Manufacturing

“…This technology can be further improved by smart tools recording different metrics so that robots could use that data for learning [109]. Robot soft hands are designed for flexibility and safety reasons, making it a promising feature for medical device manufacturing [110]. These collaborative ways can be used for carrying out tasks in quality control, such as smart inspection [111].…”

Underwater Soft Robotic Hand with Multi-Source Coupling Bio-Inspired Soft Palm and Six Fingers Driven by Water Hydraulic

“…The fingers are driven by compressed air. In the bending process, the chamber is filled with loosely arranged particles and squeezed by air, which makes the fingers have high stiffness and increase the output force and carrying capacity [22].…”

Flexible Equivalent Strain Sensor with Ordered Concentric Circular Curved Cracks Inspired by Scorpion

“…Increasing endeavors on wearable electronic devices facilitate the development of flexible strain sensors in the burgeoning fields of electronic skin, − intelligent robots, − energy storage, − and unknown object detection. , Compared with traditional strain sensors based on metals and semiconductors, flexible strain sensors have higher sensitivity and better deformability, which are more suitable for human motion monitoring. − Among various strain sensors, resistive-type sensors that have a simpler architecture and higher accuracy have received extensive attention recently. − Over the past decades, numerous efforts have been devoted to endowing the sensors with superior sensing properties, such as exploring various substrate materials (like silicon-based elastomers, epoxy, or rubber, etc. ), selecting different conductive functional materials (like C-based materials and metal nanowires), or introducing various structures (Gaussian microstructures, micro-pyramid structures, etc.…”