Abstract
Although various advanced anthropomorphic hands have been proposed, the design and fabrication of thumb joints to achieve dexterity function in a limited space is still a great challenge. To promote the dexterity of the anthropomorphic thumb joints in the cramped space of the palm, we present a fabric-based flexible actuator used for thumb joints to realize two degrees of freedom (DOFs): circumduction and adduction. First, we introduce the design concept inspired by muscle groups of the human palm. A kind of pneumatic small-scale actuators that relies on fabric-crease to produce deformation is proposed. Then the properties of flexible lightweight actuators are characterized. The actuators just need ± 10 kPa pressure to realize a flexion range of 90°. Finally, we modularly assemble the actuators to construct a compact two DOFs thumb joints. Experimental results show that the applied fabric-based thumb joints can achieve dexterous manipulation like sliding the smartphone screen.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants (nos. 52025057 and 91948302) and in part by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality under Grant 20550712100.
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Zhao, Y., Zhang, N., Feng, M., Gu, G. (2023). A Fabric-Based Flexible Actuator for Thumb Joints of Soft Anthropomorphic Hands. In: Liu, X. (eds) Advances in Mechanism, Machine Science and Engineering in China. CCMMS 2022. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9398-5_40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9398-5_40
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