Output Force Enhancement of Finger-type Manipulator by Adopting Brushless DC Motors for Sliding Actuation

Abstract

In this paper, we newly develop a finger-type manipulator driven by the slidingactuation with min iaturized brushless DC(BLDC) motors. The mechanism allows the usage of the maximalcapacity of actuators by employing the distributed actuation principle while maintaining thesmall size. Thanks to the high thrust force of the BLDC motors, the maximu m fingertipforce of the developed robot finger is remarkab ly enhanced. Through experimentation, thefingertip force of the proposed robot finger is assessed and compared with the former versionwith the ultrasonic motors.