Title: A model-based study on the mechanical behaviour of hemispherical soft fingertip

Authors: Yang Liu; Wenchuan Jia; Chao Li

Addresses: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics, School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China ' Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics, School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China ' Lenovo IPG Notebook Test Lab, Lenovo (Shanghai) Electronic Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai 201203, China

Abstract: Soft material in the fingertip of a robotic hand has been widely used to ensure stable grasping. Nevertheless in order to control grasping force with the presence of non-linear properties of soft fingertip, a stiffness model that can achieve precise description and fast calculation is needed. In this paper, a new two-dimensional stiffness model of a hemispherical soft fingertip is presented. The principle of computing elastic force when the contacting plane rotates is discussed. The logarithmic strain is employed in the measurement of Young's modulus to be consistent with the stiffness model. Finally the modelled vertical stiffness is verified experimentally by compressing a hemispherical soft fingertip. The results prove that the modelling method can be effectively applied to soft contact mechanics.

Keywords: soft fingertips; contact mechanics; stiffness modelling; logarithmic strain; mechanical behaviour; hemispherical fingertips; robotic hands; grasping force; robot grasping; robot control; elastic force; robot fingers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2016.074450

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2016 Vol.53 No.2, pp.128 - 134

Published online: 31 Jan 2016 *

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