Robotic Grasping and Fine Manipulation Using Soft Fingertip

Abstract

The ability to create stable, encompassing grasps with subsets of fingers is greatly increased by using soft fingertips that deform during contact and apply a larger space of frictional forces and moments than their rigid counterparts. This is true not only for human grasping, but also for robotic hands using fingertips made of soft materials. The superiority of deformable human fingertips as compared to hard robot gripper fingers for grasping and manipulation has led to a number of investigations with robot hands employing elastomers or materials such as fluids or powders beneath a membrane at the fingertips. When the fingers are soft, during holding and for manipulation of the object through precise dimensions, their property of softness maintains the area contact between, the fingertips and the manipulating object, which restraints the object and provides stability. In human finger there is a natural softness which is a combination of elasticity and damping. This combination of elasticity and damping is produced by nature due to flesh and blood beneath the skin. This keeps the contact firm and helps in holding the object firmly and stably.