Soft Humanoid Hands with Large Grasping Force Enabled by Flexible Hybrid Pneumatic Actuators

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Materials Science
• Human-Machine Interaction

Background:

• Soft grippers and actuators offer safer and more adaptable interactions compared to rigid systems.
• There is a growing demand for advanced robotic hands capable of handling diverse objects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel soft humanoid hand design.
• To demonstrate robust grasping capabilities for various objects.
• To investigate the performance of flexible hybrid pneumatic actuators (FHPAs).

Main Methods:

• Designing soft hand fingers using a modular approach with FHPAs.
• Developing a theoretical model to analyze FHPA performance (bending deformation, grasping force, loading capacity).
• Investigating design parameters to optimize FHPA performance.

Main Results:

• The novel soft humanoid hand demonstrates robust grasping of objects with varying properties.
• The developed FHPAs achieve a balance of flexibility and stiffness.
• The soft hand exhibits fast response, large grasping force, low cost, and light weight.

Conclusions:

• The proposed soft humanoid hand, utilizing optimized FHPAs, shows significant promise for applications requiring delicate object manipulation.
• The design facilitates ease of fabrication and repair.
• This innovation advances the field of soft robotics for practical applications.