Preliminary Design and Fabrication of Bio-Inspired Low-Cost Hybrid Soft-Rigid Robotic Hand for Grasping Delicate Objects

The human hand has the unmatched capability in grasping compared to its counterpart in robotic grasping because of the presence of a sophisticated combination of vision, tactile senses, and the human brain. In this study, a bio-inspired design has been considered for the development of the multi-finger robotic hand which consists of soft and rigid material. Each finger of the proposed robotic hand is based on the tendon-driven mechanism combines with the soft surface packed with granular material and preloaded spring. The hybrid mechanism of the tendon driven actuation and the jamming principle of the particle have the excellent flexibility as well as sufficient stiffness for grasping the objects. The soft surface of the proposed robotic hand with granular material gave the softness and adaptation to the part geometry while grasping. The developed robotic hand even able to handle the fragile and deformable object without making a bruise on the surface of the object. The combination of the rigid part along with the preloaded spring at the joint counter the bending effect developed by the soft actuator filled with granular particles for the robust grasping of a wide range of the object. Finally, a case study has been carried out to demonstrate the capability of the proposed robotic hand while grasping a wide variety of object.