Modeling and Simulation of Robotic Finger Powered by Nylon Artificial Muscles- Equations with Simulink model

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed mathematical model and Simulink simulation of a three-link robotic finger powered by nylon artificial muscles, enabling numerical analysis of its actuation and movement.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Euler-Lagrangian based modeling approach for nylon artificial muscle-actuated robotic fingers suitable for Simulink simulation.

Findings

Successful development of a Simulink model for the robotic finger

Validation of the model with experimental data

Potential for design optimization of nylon muscle actuated robots

Abstract

This paper shows a detailed modeling of three-link robotic finger that is actuated by nylon artificial muscles and a simulink model that can be used for numerical study of a robotic finger. The robotic hand prototype was recently demonstrated in recent publication Wu, L., Jung de Andrade, M., Saharan, L.,Rome, R., Baughman, R., and Tadesse, Y., 2017, Compact and Low-cost Humanoid Hand Powered by Nylon Artificial Muscles, Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 12 (2). The robotic hand is a 3D printed, lightweight and compact hand actuated by silver-coated nylon muscles, often called Twisted and coiled Polymer (TCP) muscles. TCP muscles are thermal actuators that contract when they are heated and they are getting attention for application in robotics. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the modeling equations that were derived based on Euler Lagrangian approach that is suitable for implementation in simulink model.