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Chander - 2022 - Soft Robotic Prosthetic Hand Based On Fin Ray

The document summarizes a study on the design of a soft robotic prosthetic hand based on the Fin Ray effect. The proposed hand uses 3D printed soft fingers actuated by a single linear actuator. Numerical simulations were performed to determine optimal finger dimensions for grasping capability. A prototype was created and could lift weights of around 500g before failing. Experiments showed the design has potential for improved grasping over rigid link prosthetics while being lighter weight and less obtrusive.

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12 views

Chander - 2022 - Soft Robotic Prosthetic Hand Based On Fin Ray

The document summarizes a study on the design of a soft robotic prosthetic hand based on the Fin Ray effect. The proposed hand uses 3D printed soft fingers actuated by a single linear actuator. Numerical simulations were performed to determine optimal finger dimensions for grasping capability. A prototype was created and could lift weights of around 500g before failing. Experiments showed the design has potential for improved grasping over rigid link prosthetics while being lighter weight and less obtrusive.

Uploaded by

mikelaxn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IMSD_ACMD, 214, v1: ’Soft robotic prosthetic hand based on Fin Ray effect’ 1

The 6th Joint International Conference on Multibody System Dynamics and


The 10th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics
October 16-20, 2022, New Delhi, India

Soft robotic prosthetic hand based on Fin Ray® effect

Sekar Anup Chander*, Banibrata Datta*, Srikanth Vasamsetti*, MD Sameer#, Akshit Gupta †, P S Suvin+,

* CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation #University Institute of Engineering and Technology


Chandigarh, 160030, India Panjab University, Chandigarh, India- 160014,
[email protected] [email protected]
† +National Institute of Technology Karnataka,
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Patiala,147004, India Surathkhal, 575025, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract
In this paper, we present the design and prototype of a soft robotics based prosthetic hand, inspired by
the Fin Ray effect. The proposed device is designed for hand amputees, to gain the lost grasping
capability and dexterity of an actual human hand. This is an approach to overcome the issues related to
weight, wear and tear, and obtrusive appearance present in existing rigid link-based prosthetic hands.
The proposed prosthetic hand is actuated through a single linear actuator. We performed a set of
numerical simulations to find out the best suitable dimensions of the parameters on which the grasping
capability of the Fin Ray® effect-based fingers depends. A hand prototype was made using 3D printed
fingers constraining the dimensions to that of the human hand. The experiments showed that the weight
lifting capacity of the prototype is around 500g before failing.
Keywords: Fin Ray®, Soft robotics, Under actuation, Conformal grasping

Introduction
Soft and adaptable manipulators in the case of bionic robots have resulted in a great reduction of control
complexity by their material softness and mechanical compliance. It has the capability of achieving form
closure by utilizing its compliance nature which enables the improved ability to grasp delicate objects
with varying shapes. Researchers for the past few decades are working to develop underactuated robotic
manipulators using soft robotic concepts. To name a few techniques, pneumatic-actuator based
manipulators, shape memory alloy (SMA) based manipulators, and Fin Ray® effect-based manipulators
can be listed. Out of these techniques, a pneumatic-actuator based manipulator is usually not preferable
for prosthetic hand application, due to its heavyweight, high noise emission and need for air-tight parts.
Furthermore, SMA based manipulators are highly sensitive to ambient temperature and are difficult to
achieve repeatability. The Fin Ray® effect-based fingers for prosthetic hands provide a robust
alternative with lesser weight, reduced control complexity, low noise emission, and is capable of
grasping complex-shaped objects. Therefore, Fin Ray® effect-based manipulators can be an interesting
and effective solution which overcomes the problems occurring in rigid link-based manipulators and
other soft robotics-based manipulators, for potential application in designing a prosthetic hand.

Methodology
Fin Ray® effect-based finger is a monolithic structure with a triangular shape. One of the two ends at
the base side is fixed rigidly to a structure while the other end is pulled in the direction away from the
tip of the triangle. This way, if two or more fingers are positioned face to face and the movable ends of
these fingers are pulled simultaneously, the fingertips of each of these fingers come closer to each other.
Thus, an object placed in between these fingers can be held by these fingers.

In this work, a prosthetic hand consisting of a thumb and four fingers has been designed as shown in
figure 1. Figure 1 also depicts the effect of displacing the movable end from point A to point A˝, while
contacting a fixed rigid object. The design parameters such as outer wall thickness, number of ribs, rib
angle, the thickness of ribs, outer wall slope and finger width are adjusted to maximize the equivalent
normal stress on an object while keeping the deformation to a minimum while grasping an object. The
FEA simulation of the behaviour of the proposed CAD models is presented in this paper. The ideal
design is then selected based on the best suited behavioural characteristics among those designs. A
2 IMSD_ACMD, 214, v1: ’Soft robotic prosthetic hand based on Fin Ray effect’

prototype with the selected design parameters using Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) for the finger
part and Polylactic acid (PLA) for the palm and wrist part has been developed.

Figure 1: CAD model of the proposed prosthetic hand and graphical representation of Fin Ray® effect
based finger during contact with an object.

Results and discussion


The contact stress analysis was performed to observe the resulting deformation of the fingertip. The
simulation was set by placing a fixed rigid cylinder next to the finger while a stroke of 20 mm was
applied to the actuated link of the finger. The resultant behaviour of a specimen of the finger is shown
in figure 2.

Figure 2: CAD model of Fin Ray® finger-pointing factors taken into consideration for variation and deformation
of fingertip upon changing the a) angle of the rib b) slope angle c) the number of ribs.

The best suitable dimensions which result in the lowest deformation of the fingertip in each case have
been selected for designing the proposed device. The 3D printed model of the proposed device has been
developed. We evaluated the hand’s performance in grasping various ADL objects with different shapes
and sizes to observe its shape adaptability and the device grasping ability. The overall results showed
that this concept can be extended to the design of a soft robotic prosthetic hand with improved grasping
capability. In future, we are planning to test the device with patients suffering from upper limb
amputation.

References
[1] Müller, A., Aydemir, M., Glodde, A. and Dietrich, F., “Design Approach for Heavy-Duty Soft-
Robotic-Gripper,” Procedia CIRP 91, 301–305 (2020).
[2] Yang, Yang et al. “A 3D-Printed Fin Ray Effect Inspired Soft Robotic Gripper with Force
Feedback.” Micromachines vol. 12,10 1141. 23 Sep. 2021.

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