Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper presents a soft robot finger capable of adaptive-twist deformation to grasp objects by wrapping them. For a soft hand to grasp and pick-up one object from densely contained multiple objects, a soft finger requires theadaptive-twistdeformation function in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions. The function allows the finger to be inserted deeply into a limited gap among objects. Once inserted, the soft finger requires appropriate control of grasping force normal to contact surface, thereby maintaining the twisted deformation. In this paper, we refer to this type of grasping asgrasping by wrapping. To achieve these two functions by a single actuation source, we propose a variable stiffness mechanism that can adaptively change the stiffness as the pressure is higher. We conduct a finite element analysis (FEA) on the proposed mechanism and determine its design parameter based on the FEA result. Using the developed soft finger, we report basic experimental results and demonstrations on grasping various objects.
Authors: Hiroki Ishikawa, Kyosuke Ishibashi, Ko Yamamoto
Institution: The University of Tokyo
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4415221891