Underactuated multi-finger hand design improves stable object grasping
Quasi-static analysis of passive stability in a novel underactuated multi-finger hand
Robotics
Summary
Grasping objects with robotic hands that use fewer motors is tricky because it's hard to predict how the object will stay balanced. The authors created a new three-finger robotic hand with a clever spring and slider system that adapts its grip more naturally. They studied how this design affects the hand's ability to hold cylindrical and spherical objects stably, considering different object sizes. Their approach helps understand which hand positions will keep an object from slipping or falling.
What this means in practice
- •For robotic hand designers: Design multi-finger robotic hands with fewer actuators that can predict and improve stable grasps using a differential spring mechanism.
- •For industrial automation engineers: Enhance robotic gripping systems in manufacturing by modeling how object size affects stable grasp positions for different shapes.
Authors
Léonie Plancoulaine, Sylvain Guégan, Franck Plestan, Damien Chablat
Abstract
Underactuated robotic hands achieve adaptive and robust grasping with a reduced number of actuators, but predicting the stable equilibrium pose of the grasped object remains a significant challenge. This paper introduces a quasi-static analytical approach to assess passive stability in underactuated multi-finger hands. A novel three-finger hand architecture integrating a differential spring-loaded slider mechanism is introduced, enabling versatile and adaptive grasping. The study focuses on how the differential mechanism influences the overall grasp behavior and analyzes the effect of object size on the stable equilibrium configurations for two canonical grasp types: cylindrical and spherical.