Integrated Design Fabrication and Control of a Bioinspired Multimaterial Soft Robotic Hand

TL;DR

This paper presents an integrated design, fabrication, and control approach for a bioinspired multimaterial soft robotic hand, utilizing finite element analysis, 3D printing, and simple control to achieve life-like movements efficiently.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-material soft robotic hand design with integrated fabrication and control, reducing development time and cost compared to traditional trial-and-error methods.

Findings

Finite element analysis effectively guided hand geometry design.

The hand successfully grasped objects of various shapes and weights.

Experimental validation confirmed the control system's ability to maintain desired finger angles.

Abstract

Machines that mimic humans have inspired scientists for centuries. Bio-inspired soft robotic hands are a good example of such an endeavor, featuring intrinsic material compliance and continuous motion to deal with uncertainty and adapt to unstructured environments. Recent research led to impactful achievements in functional designs, modeling, fabrication, and control of soft robots. Nevertheless, the full realization of life-like movements is still challenging to achieve, often based on trial-and-error considerations from design to fabrication, consuming time and resources. In this study, a soft robotic hand is proposed, composed of soft actuator cores and an exoskeleton, featuring a multi-material design aided by finite element analysis (FEA) to define the hand geometry and promote finger's bendability. The actuators are fabricated using molding and the exoskeleton is 3D-printed in a single step. An ON-OFF controller keeps the set fingers' inner pressures related to specific bending angles, even in the presence of leaks. The FEA numerical results were validated by experimental tests, as well as the ability of the hand to grasp objects with different shapes, weights and sizes. This integrated solution will make soft robotic hands more available to people, at a reduced cost, avoiding the time-consuming design-fabrication trial-and-error processes.