Position Prediction of Soft Finger Driven by SMA Based on Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor

The purpose of this study is to analyze the deformation of soft finger driven by shape memory alloy (SMA) under fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor. Firstly, the structure and material properties of the finger, as well as the theoretical calculation of the shape of the finger by using the Cosserat elastic rod theory are introduced. Next, FBG sensors are arranged on the soft finger skeleton to analyze the theoretical relations such as FBG central wavelength and curvature, and the mathematical algorithm is used to realize the actual bending shape fitting of the soft finger. Finally, the flexural deformation experiment of the soft finger is carried out to validate the theoretical results based on Cosserat theory and ABAQUS simulation. The experimental results show the FBG sensor can effectively predict the deformation of the soft finger in real-time.