A Novel Soft Robotic Hand for Prosthetic Applications

This paper presents the conceptual design and the feasibility study of a soft hand prosthesis for amputees made of elastomers and pneumatic actuation. Traditionally, rigid materials are used to design hand prosthesis covered by a soft layer of skin to mimic the appearance and look of a natural human hand. This process results in rigid, bulky and complex hand prostheses that are difficult to design, fabricate and operate by amputees. In this research, a pneumatically actuated soft robotic hand is designed and constructed with the intent to create a working prototype, which can be used as a prosthetic hand with individually actuating fingers. For the body of the robot, our design uses soft elastomers for the palm and fingers of the prosthesis. For actuation, we use a pneumatic driven actuator made of the same material as the body of the prosthesis. The power supply to this system is provided using a pressurized cylinder that uses five solenoid valves to actuate and control the fingers using an Arduino R2 microcontroller. Our preliminary results and the prototype show the functionality of the hand prosthesis with the incorporation of soft elastomers and flexible novel fluidic actuation. This technique provides an opportunity to bridge the gap between the hand and the environment, allowing the disabled person to achieve robust grasping and manipulation of objects.