Design and Simulation Experiment of Rigid-Flexible Soft Humanoid Finger

Abstract

This paper is based on the “Fast Pneumatic Mesh Driver” (FPN) used to couple a silicone rubber soft body with a rigid skeleton. A rigid-flexible coupling soft-body human-like finger design scheme is proposed to solve the problem of low load on the soft-body gripping hand. The second-order Yeoh model is used to establish the statics model of the soft humanoid finger, and the ABAQUS simulation analysis software is used for correction and comparison to verify the feasibility of the soft humanoid finger bending. The thickness of the driver cavity and the confining strain layer were determined by finite element simulation. The mold casting process is used to complete the preparation of human-like fingers and design a pneumatic control system for experiments combined with 3D printing technology. The experimental results show that the proposed rigid-flexible coupling soft body imitating the human finger structure can realize the corresponding actions, such as the multi-joint bending and side swinging, of human fingers. Compared with the traditional pure soft-body finger, the fingertip output force is significantly improved. The optimal design and simulation analysis of the human gripper and the feasibility of the application have practical guiding significance.