Abstract
This paper addresses the problem of designing an artificial finger with variable stiffness in its joints. Our approach is based on the principle of combining different means of actuation. Two different versions of variable-stiffness joints are presented and used in the design and manufacturing of three prototypes of gripper fingers. Diverse material configurations are used in order to determine which are the distinctive capabilities of each one and how they differ. In order to test the fingers we built a test bench that allows us to measure the movement of the tendon-driven actuation, the pressure of air actuation and the force that is deployed in the tip of the finger. Several tests are made to measure the relation between the actuation input and the force exerted by the fingertips. Our results suggest that the best mechanism to achieve variable stiffness in the joints is a soft-rigid hybrid finger.
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Acknowledgement
This paper describes research done at UJI RobInLab. Support for this research was provided by Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad (DPI2015-69041-R).
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Cardin-Catalan, D., del Pobil, A.P., Morales, A. (2019). Analysis of Variable-Stiffness Soft Finger Joints. In: Strand, M., Dillmann, R., Menegatti, E., Ghidoni, S. (eds) Intelligent Autonomous Systems 15. IAS 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 867. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01370-7_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01370-7_27
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