Optimization design and analysis of an underactuated dexterous robotic hand system

Abstract

This paper presents the optimization of three-dimensional (3D) Printed Underactuated Dexterous Robotic Hand (UDRH) design and the analysis of the UDRH material. The UDRH design consists of three fingers and a thumb at which each finger has two links and two degrees of freedoms (DOF) and each joint of the finger is actuated by the DC Micromotor. The thumb has 3DOF to allow for adduction and abduction of the thumb. The robot hand is designed to be like human hand whereby higher performances in accuracy, stability and consistency can be achieved. The actuators are placed directly in each finger link so that the robot hand has several degrees of freedoms to achieve dexterous grasping. The angular rotation, speed, and torque have to be controlled for each individual joint to enable a more precise control. The structure of the UDRH robot hand is printed by using Flashforge Creator Pro 3D printer machine. In this paper, the optimization and analysis of fused deposition modeling (FDM) printed materials which are Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), Polylactid Acid (PLA), Nylon, and Polycarbonate (PC) plastic are accomplished by testing for their stress and deformation through finite element analysis by using Solidworks software. From the analysis, the critical points and the parts of the UDRH design that are prone to damage under high force and temperature can be detected. In this study, ABS plastic material is chosen for UDRH prototype due to its properties which are resistance to heat which is 5.47 × 106N/m2, and high melting point of 210°C compared to the other materials.