Underactuated Tendon-driven Finger Design with Bio-inspired Ligamentous Joint mechanism

Abstract

A novel robotic finger is proposed in this paper, which is composed of three biomimetic joints whose structures and several properties are close to human joints. The proposed joint mechanisms anatomically mimic ligamentous structures of the human joints, based on the concept of tensegrity structure. Also the proposed joint mechanism is lightweight, compliant, and non-contact between rigid bodies since it belongs to class 1 tensegrity system. Subsequently, a proper design of tendon routing able to take advantage of the proposed mechanism is introduced, ultimately, the proposed finger becomes an underactuated mechanism able to realize active flexion, passive extension, and passive abduction/adduction.