Design and development of a sensorized cylindrical object for grasping assessment

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Human-Machine Interaction
• Biomechanics and Sensor Technology

Background:

• Accurate assessment of grasping performance is crucial for both human motor control studies and robotic hand development.
• Existing methods may lack the comprehensive force and orientation data needed for detailed grasp analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and develop an instrumented cylindrical object for evaluating grasping performance.
• To integrate force sensors and a magneto-inertial unit for comprehensive data acquisition.
• To enable assessment of both human and robotic hand grasps, including power and precision grips.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a cylindrical object with two concentric shells housing sixteen piezoresistive force sensors.
• Integration of a magneto-inertial unit for capturing object orientation during manipulation.
• Implementation of wireless data transmission from sensors to a remote laptop.
• Utilization of finite element analysis (FEA) to estimate shell deformation and static analysis to assess sensor sensitivity.

Main Results:

• The instrumented object successfully measures forces applied by individual fingers during grasping.
• Object orientation data is acquired via the integrated magneto-inertial unit.
• FEA and static analysis confirmed the object's performance and sensitivity characteristics.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrumented object is feasible for assessing grasping performance in both human and robotic hands.
• The device provides valuable data for understanding and improving grasp strategies and robotic manipulation.