01908nas a2200277 4500008004100000022001500041245009200056210006900148260001700217300001600234490000600250520112800256653001501384653001301399653001201412653001501424653001101439653001001450653001001460100002801470700001501498700001401513700001501527700002001542856006801562 2020 eng d a 2377-376600aExploring the Role of Palm Concavity and Adaptability in Soft Synergistic Robotic Hands0 aExploring the Role of Palm Concavity and Adaptability in Soft Sy c17 June 2020 a4703 - 47100 v53 a
Robotic hand engineers usually focus on finger capabilities, often disregarding the palm contribution. Inspired by human anatomy, this paper explores the advantages of including a flexible concave palm into the design of a robotic hand actuated by soft synergies. We analyse how the inclusion of an articulated palm improves finger workspace and manipulability. We propose a mechanical design of a modular palm with two elastic rolling-contact palmar joints, that can be integrated on the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, without introducing additional motors. With this prototype, we evaluate experimentally the grasping capabilities of a robotic palm. We compare its performance to that of the same robotic hand with the palm fixed, and to that of a human hand. To assess the effective grasp quality achieved by the three systems, we measure the contact area using paint-transfer patterns in different grasping actions. Preliminary grasping experiments show a closer resemblance of the soft-palm robotic hand to the human hand. Results evidence a higher adaptive capability and a larger involvement of all fingers in grasping.
10aEllipsoids10aGrasping10aIndexes10aKinematics10aRobots10aShape10aThumb1 aCapsi-Morales, Patricia1 aGrioli, G.1 aPiazza, C1 aBicchi, A.1 aCatalano, M. G. uhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9119822?source=authoralert