A Soft Five-Fingered Hand Actuated by Shape Memory Alloy Wires: Design, Manufacturing, and Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Materials Science
• Biomimetics

Background:

• Soft robotic hands offer compliant manipulation capabilities.
• Traditional robotic hands often lack dexterity and safety for human interaction.
• Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) provide a compact and powerful actuation method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel five-fingered soft robotic hand prototype.
• To utilize Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires for actuation and compliance.
• To achieve silent, lightweight, and flexible robotic hand with versatile grasping capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Designing and 3D printing a five-fingered hand skeleton.
• Integrating thin (100 μm diameter) SMA wires for actuation.
• Employing superelastic SMA wires for flexible joints between phalanges.
• Utilizing welded SMA wire bundles for high force and speed at fingertips.

Main Results:

• The prototype exhibits a lightweight, flexible, and silent operational structure.
• Fingers demonstrate intrinsically elastic properties with significant displacement.
• The hand achieves considerable grasping force and dynamic responsiveness.
• Successful grasping of various object sizes and shapes is demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The developed SMA-actuated soft robotic hand is a versatile prototype.
• The design enables compliant and forceful object manipulation.
• This technology holds potential for advanced robotic grasping applications.