Abstract
In the design of humanoid robotic hands, it is important to evaluate the grasp stability, especially when the concept of underactuation is involved. The use of a number of degrees of actuation lower than the degrees of freedom has shown some advantages compared to conventional solutions in terms of adaptivity, compactness, ease of control, and cost-effectiveness. However, limited attention has been devoted to the analysis of grasp performance. Some specific issues that need to be further investigated are, for example, the impact of the geometry of the fingers and the objects to be grasped and the value of the driving mechanical torques applied to the phalanges. This research proposes a software toolbox that is aimed to support a user towards an optimal design of underactuated fingers that satisfies stable and efficient grasp constraints.
Highlights
IntroductionIn the last few years, increasing interest has been devoted towards compliant and underactuated hands as a compact, reliable, and flexible grasping solution in manipulation applications [1,2]
In the last few years, increasing interest has been devoted towards compliant and underactuated hands as a compact, reliable, and flexible grasping solution in manipulation applications [1,2].relatively limited attention has been given to the development of simulation tools that address the specific challenges connected with underactuated grasping [3]
This paper introduces a simulation toolbox that the authors developed during their current efforts at BionIT Labs towards an efficient design of Adam’s Hand: a transradial myoelectric prosthesis that uses a highly underactuated mechanism, composed of 14 differential stages actuated by a single motor
Summary
In the last few years, increasing interest has been devoted towards compliant and underactuated hands as a compact, reliable, and flexible grasping solution in manipulation applications [1,2]. [4] and OpenGrasp [5] Both simulators allow a set of common objects and various types of grippers to be analyzed, but they are not well suited for grasp stability analysis, especially when underactuated architectures are considered. Other recent efforts that address the specific design of under-actuated hands include [6], whereas SynGrasp [7] is a MATLAB toolbox for grasp analysis of fully or underactuated robotic hands. This paper introduces a simulation toolbox that the authors developed during their current efforts at BionIT Labs towards an efficient design of Adam’s Hand: a transradial myoelectric prosthesis that uses a highly underactuated mechanism, composed of 14 differential stages actuated by a single motor. Mathematica programming environment allows to exploit other specific tools and built-in math functions enabling the exploration of multiple approaches and the integration with other analysis tools, e.g., statistical processing of experimental data, optimization, dynamic models, and simulations
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