Design and Analysis of a Novel 3-DOF Deployable Grasping Mechanism

Abstract

In this paper, a novel 3-DOF deployable grasping mechanism consisting of two fingers and a palmar mechanism is proposed, in which each finger is made up of a series of basic modules. Firstly, specific design of the grasping mechanism is introduced. In order to realize the deployment motion, two groups of scissor-shaped elements are used in design of basic module, special revolute joint of the scissor-shaped element is designed to form grasping angle when the basic module carries out deployment motion. Secondly, the grasping angle and the deploy/fold ratio are discussed, from which the method to adjust grasping angle is also proposed. Thirdly, kinematics and workspace of the proposed grasping mechanism are analyzed, analysis result shows that the proposed grasping mechanism has quite large reachable workspace. Fourthly, the shape adaptability and grasping simulation are conducted, in which four types of objects with different shapes are grasped by the proposed grasping mechanism. The results prove that the proposed grasping mechanism has good grasping performance.