Morphological design methodology of rugged underactuated gripper
Name
958162638-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
19.47 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f9f6f87ff5f7388356f429bbf1a7f25e
Author(s)
Mayo, John Patrick
Advisor(s)
Sangbae Kim.
Date Issued
2016
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to extend the design tools for robust underactuated hand design. Disaster response robots operate in highly unstructured environments where they need to dynamically move and interface to successfully fulfill their task. Historically robotic hands have been optimized for grasp strength, robustness, lightness, but not a combination of all of these factors. This thesis proposes key design requirements for disaster response robot hands and explains the design of the HERMES humanoid robotic system hand that balances these factors for versatility. Not only is it used for grasping, but a unique metal backbone allows it to be used as a foot also. Additionally, base modeling is presented for predicting the finger contact forces based on geometry of the grasp object and input tension to the hand. Trends in the number of fingers for practical disaster tasks are explored. The major purpose in the design of this hand is to be able to perform dynamic tasks such as swinging an ax which induces a moment reaction within the hand. For this loading condition, the maximum allowable reaction force scales quadratically with number of fingers, whereas tasks that only apply normal or shear forces to the hand scale linearly. The model shows that the HERMES hand can handle a 0.75 kg ax and door with 512 N of dynamic pull force. These models and design can be used for optimizing characteristics of future robotic hands, especially in the disaster response realm.
Description
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2016.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-65).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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