Purpose

Rigid robotic hands are generally fast, precise and capable of exerting large forces, whereas soft robotic hands are compliant, safe and adaptive to complex environments. It is valuable and challenging to develop soft-rigid robotic hands that have both types of capabilities. The paper aims to address the challenge through developing a paradigm to achieve the behaviors of soft and rigid robotic hands adaptively.

Design/methodology/approach

The design principle of a two-joint finger is proposed. A kinematic model and a stiffness enhancement method are proposed and discussed. The manufacturing process for the soft-rigid finger is presented. Experiments are carried out to validate the accuracy of the kinematic model and evaluate the performance of the flexible body of the finger. Finally, a robotic hand composed of two soft-rigid fingers is fabricated to demonstrate its grasping capacities.

Findings

The kinematic model can capture the desired distal deflection and comprehensive shape accurately. The stiffness enhancement method guarantees stable grasp of the robotic hand, without sacrificing its flexibility and adaptability. The robotic hand is lightweight and practical. It can exhibit different grasping capacities.

Practical implications

It can be applied in the field of industrial grasping, where the objects are varied in materials and geometry. The hand’s inherent characteristic removes the need to detect and react to slight variations in surface geometry and makes the control strategies simple.

Originality/value

This work proposes a novel robotic hand. It possesses three distinct characteristics, i.e. high compliance, exhibiting discrete or continuous kinematics adaptively, lightweight and practical structures.

中文翻译：

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开发具有软材料和刚性结构的新型机械手

目的

刚性机械手通常快速、精确且能够施加大的力，而软机械手则柔顺、安全且适应复杂环境。开发兼具这两种能力的软硬机械手是有价值且具有挑战性的。本文旨在通过开发一种范式来解决这一挑战，以自适应地实现软机械手和刚性机械手的行为。

设计/方法/方法

提出了双关节手指的设计原理。提出并讨论了运动学模型和刚度增强方法。介绍了软硬手指的制造过程。进行实验以验证运动学模型的准确性并评估手指柔性体的性能。最后，制造了一个由两个软硬手指组成的机械手，以展示其抓取能力。

发现

运动学模型可以准确捕捉所需的远端偏转和综合形状。刚度增强方法保证了机械手的稳定抓握，同时又不牺牲其灵活性和适应性。机械手轻巧实用。它可以表现出不同的抓取能力。

实际影响

它可以应用于工业抓取领域，其中物体的材料和几何形状各不相同。手部的固有特性消除了对表面几何形状的细微变化进行检测和反应的需要，并使控制策略变得简单。

原创性/价值

这项工作提出了一种新颖的机械手。它具有三个鲜明的特点，即高顺应性、自适应地表现离散或连续运动学、轻质和实用的结构。