Robotic Hands

In this paper we present a novel and simple handheld device for measuring in vivo human grasp impedance. The measurement method is based on a static identification method and intrinsic impedance is identified inbetween 25 ms. Using this device it is possbile to develop continuous grasp impedance measurement methods as it is an active research topic in physiology as well as in robotics, especially since nowadays (bio-inspired) robotics can be impedance-controlled. Potential applications of human impedance estimation range from impedance-controlled telesurgery to limb prosthetics and rehabilitation robotics. We validate the device through a physiological experiment in which the device is used to show a linear relationship between finger stiffness and grip force.

Image matching is a key component in almost any image analysis process. Image matching is crucial to a wide range of applications, such as in navigation, guidance, automatic surveillance, robot vision, and in mapping sciences. Any automated system for three-dimensional point positioning must include a potent procedure for image matching. Most biological vision systems have the talent to cope with changing world. Computer vision systems have developed in the same way. For a computer vision system, the ability to cope with moving and changing objects, changing illumination, and changing viewpoints is essential to perform several tasks. Object detection is necessary for surveillance applications, for guidance of autonomous vehicles, for efficient video compression, for smart tracking of moving objects, for automatic target recognition (ATR) systems and for many other applications. Cross-correlation and related techniques have dominated the field since the early fifties. Conventional template matching algorithm based on cross-correlation requires complex calculation and large time for object detection, which makes difficult to use them in real time applications. The shortcomings of this class of image matching methods have caused a slow-down in the development of operational automated correlation systems. In the proposed work particle swarm optimization & its variants based algorithm is used for detection of object in image. Implementation of this algorithm reduces the time required for object detection than conventional template matching algorithm. Algorithm can detect object in less number of iteration & hence less time & energy than the complexity of conventional template matching. This feature makes the method capable for real time implementation. In this thesis a study of particle Swarm optimization algorithm is done & then formulation of the algorithm for object detection using PSO & its variants is implemented for validating its effectiveness.

This work presents a detailed design of a three-jointed tendon-driven robot finger with a cam/pulleys transmission and joint Variable Stiffness Actuator (VSA). The finger motion configuration is obtained by deriving the cam/pulleys transmission profile as a mathematical solution that is then implemented to achieve contact force isotropy on the phalanges. A VSA is proposed, in which three VSAs are designed to act as a muscle in joint space to provide firm grasping. As a mechatronic approach, a suitable type and number of force sensors and actuators are designed to sense the touch, actuate the finger, and tune the VSAs. The torque of the VSAs is controlled utilizing a designed Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) fuzzy controller. The fuzzy controller input is the force sensors' signals that are used to set the appropriate VSA torque. The fuzzy controller parameters are then tuned using a genetic algorithm as an optimization technique. The objective function of the genetic algorithm is to avoid unbalance torque in the individual joints and to reduce the difference between the values of the supplied VSAs torques. Finally, the operation of the aforementioned finger system is organized through a simple control algorithm. The function of this algorithm is to enable the detection of the unknown object and simultaneously automatically activate the optimized fuzzy controller thus eliminating the necessity of any external control unit.

The objective of this paper is to simulate the human hand when grasping an object, considering the angles of the finger joints and the fingertip deformation. To study the grasp of an object used in activities of daily life (ADL) we focus on the equations given by grasps with force-closure. In this paper we address several topics and study grasping holistically, including power and precision grasping, the position of the finger and joint angles, fingertip deformation and fingertip forces (normal and frictional forces), and assess how all these features combine to perform a complete grasping action. Conclusions: We describe the strategy used to solve the problem of calculating the force when grasping with five fingers; the same strategy is used in both power and precision grasps.

The record of highest sales for one day is 20000 buns and the manpower for Pau Mira factory is only 18 persons. Special feature for Pau Mira is about the full of stuffing and many choices of flavor. Hot selling bun flavor is red bean bun and chocolate bun. For example, Bun Mira contains many flavors such as red bean bun, coconut, yam, chocolate, chicken, durian and it is enables to be food supplies to West Malaysia, not only limited to area Pagoh. The workflow for Pau Mira factory includes ingredient selection, dough kneading, and bun formation, fermentation, steaming, cooling and packaging. Table 5.1 shows the process of making pau started from dough kneading until the packaging process

Emergency scenarios are becoming more and more demanding for the National Health Services and for emergency operators such as Police and Fire-Fighters. In this context the rapidity and efficiency of the interventions are mandatory skills. We leverage on current technologies to propose an integrated system where conversational interaction with a Machine Vision System can provide a specific behavior to a mobile vehicle combined with a flying drone in order to execute a specific task such as, for example, having the drone following an operator while intervening in the emergency (i.e. earthquake, fire, flooding, etc.). The paper investigates the use of video object detection using a DJI Mavic Air Drone for real-time applications. The object detection system is provided by CGI Machine Vision, detecting objects and people from live footage. The aim of the proposed architecture is to provide an integrated solution for streaming a live video feed from a camera drone to an edge device running CGI Machine Vision to prove the concept of vehiclebased drones to provide aerial situational awareness to emergency operators and law enforcement officers. The paper presents the design, implementation and testing of the system, as well as the successful proof of concept and real-world demonstration. The research gave positive results and demonstrated the capability, along with recommendations for further refinement and next steps.

Cooperative crane lifts are considered as an alternative to specialized heavy crane lifts. However, in executing a cooperative crane lift, the precise coordination among the cranes is critical. This level of precision is better assured through automation of the lift operation. However, due to the drawbacks in current crane technology automated execution is not feasible. The development of a prototype work cell for cooperative lifts is addressed in this paper. The prototype manipulator developed has four degrees of freedom and possess the degrees of freedom of a typical hydraulic crane-swinging, luffing, telescoping and hoisting. For programmable control, the manipulator is interfaced to the computer. Uncoordinated motion among the individual manipulators often occurs when subject to cooperative manipulation. The cooperative manipulation is ensured by means of a typical logic that paves the way for proper control flow sequence between the individual controllers through RS-232 serial port. A series of trials were conducted to investigate the behaviour of the system under different cases.

The human hand with more than twenty seven Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) has a unique musco-skeletal structure with neuro-sensory attributes under control of CNS, is a quintessence to construct a robotic hand. The fingers are connected to the palm with metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints. These joints have two DoFs i.e. flexion-extension and abduction-adduction whereas the remaining two joints of the digits have only one DoF. Literature survey divulges that, while constructing a robotic hand, mostly the abduction-adduction at MCP joint is discarded for simplicity. This paper is aimed at development of a mechanism that encompasses both flexion-extension and abduction-adduction for all the three fingers located on the palm opposite to the thumb, whereas the thumb has been separately designed to impart both the radial and palmer movements with respect to the palm as well as flexion and extension, thereby imparting greater compliance to the system, to cope up with wide variety of tasks. Keywor...

In this paper, an embedded system platform is used for signal acquisition and processing. On a healthy male subject, the motor unit of the ring finger is marked. The surface Electromyographic (sEMG) signals and their corresponding skeletal muscle force signals are acquired using a PIC 32 microcontroller at a sampling rate of 2000 samples per second. The filtration is achieved by using a Wavelet transform Daubechies 44 filter at 5 levels of decomposition for sEMG and a Chebyshev Type-II filter for skeletal muscle force signals. The data is acquired through the Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) model of the PIC 33MX360F512L embedded test bed and is compared to data acquiredwith standard sEMG Delsys® Bagnoli 16 acquisition system.

This paper describes the methodology applied to obtain a functional prototype of a robotic hand considering anthropometric characteristics. An analysis by image processing is made from computerized tomographics (CT) to generate a model of the prototype which is then utilized for the development of the analytical study for the synthesis of a four bar sub-mechanism suitable to generate optimal trajectories to grasp objects in a manner such as puntual, palmar, lateral, cylindrical and spherical. In this sense, the scientific and technological relevance obtained from this work is based on the diversity of the device executed movements in addition to its ability to adapt different auxiliary components to perform some function with the amputated trunnion member, so that the system is designed to be applicable as a prosthesis. In this sense, this proposal aims to get a working prototype with versatile features to handle objects with different geometries considering the system functionality...

Current anthropomorphic robotic hands mainly focus on improving their dexterity by devising new mechanical structures and actuation systems. However, most of them rely on a single structure/system (e.g., bone-only) and ignore the fact that the human hand is composed of multiple functional structures (e.g., skin, bones, muscles, and tendons). This not only increases the difficulty of the design process but also lowers the robustness and flexibility of the fabricated hand. Besides, other factors like customization, the time and cost for production, and the degree of resemblance between human hands and robotic hands, remain omitted. To tackle these problems, this study proposes a 3D printable multi-layer design that models the hand with the layers of skin, tissues, and bones. The proposed design first obtains the 3D surface model of a target hand via 3D scanning, and then generates the 3D bone models from the surface model based on a fast template matching method. To overcome the disad...

We present a design optimisation method for the routing of tendons in a tendon-driven mechanism with the objective of maximising force transmission efficiency (FTE). We formulate a friction model for the different routing elements, accounting for routing point radii and slipping/rolling contacts. We then construct a numerical design optimisation problem to optimise the design parameters, routing point locations, for a given tendon routing topology. We apply the method to the design of an existing tendon-driven gripper. The results show that frictional losses can be reduced by approximately half compared to the baseline design, and that taking into account the routing point radii is indeed of significant influence.

In this paper we present the development and preliminary validation of a wearable system which is combined with an algorithm interfacing the MYO gesture armband with a Sphero BB-8 robotic device. The MYO armband is a wearable device which measures real-time EMG signals of the end user’s forearm muscles as the user is executing a set of upper limb gestures. These gestures are interpreted and transmitted to a computing hardware via a Bluetooth Low Energy IEEE 802.15.1 wireless protocol. The algorithm analyzes and sorts the data and sends a set of commands to the Sphero robotic device while performing navigation movements.  After designing and integrating the software and hardware architecture, we have validated the system with two sets of trials involving a series of commands performed in multiple iterations. The consequent reactions of the robots, due to these commands, were recorded and the performance of the system was analyzed in a confusion matrix to obtain an average accuracy of...

Grasping is an important characteristic of robots in interacting with humans and the environment. Due to the inherent compliance of soft grippers, they can easily adapt to novel objects and operate safely in a humancentered environment. However, soft hands suffer from poor grasping robustness and operation durability, especially for heavy objects or objects with sharp spikes, mainly due to their fragile material and low structural stiffness of the soft actuators. Thus, the widespread use of soft hands in daily applications is still limited. Existing works have shown a promising direction to enhance grasping performance by solving the contradiction between inherent compliance/adaptability and loading capacity. It is known that the stiffness of the robotic phalange is highly related to the performance of robotic hands. In this article, we propose a novel variable stiffness particle phalange, called VSPP here. The proposed VSPP exhibits variable stiffness characteristics without the need for dedicated actuation by utilizing passive particle jamming resulted from forces in interacting with the environment. The VSPP can cooperate with any kind of actuators, soft or rigid, to function as a compliant and robust robotic hand. A prototype robotic hand based on VSPP could maintain reliable grasping even when pierced by sharp objects such as a needle, a cactus, and a durian. This durability is effective both in air and underwater, thus presents new possibilities for the soft robotic hand to work in a harsh environment. The inherent multidirectional compliance of the VSPP makes safety in human/robot interaction guaranteed. The design and modeling presented in this research will provide useful guidance in VSPP applications. A prototype gripper, VSPP-3, composed of three 2-segments VSPP fingers and pneumatic joints, has been built for demonstrations in reliable and robust grasping of daily objects. The sample grasping has shown that the proposed VSPP has great potential for a robust and durable soft robotic hand or gripper design.

Grasping is an important characteristic of robots in interacting with humans and the environment. Due to the inherent compliance of soft grippers, they can easily adapt to novel objects and operate safely in a humancentered environment. However, soft hands suffer from poor grasping robustness and operation durability, especially for heavy objects or objects with sharp spikes, mainly due to their fragile material and low structural stiffness of the soft actuators. Thus, the widespread use of soft hands in daily applications is still limited. Existing works have shown a promising direction to enhance grasping performance by solving the contradiction between inherent compliance/adaptability and loading capacity. It is known that the stiffness of the robotic phalange is highly related to the performance of robotic hands. In this article, we propose a novel variable stiffness particle phalange, called VSPP here. The proposed VSPP exhibits variable stiffness characteristics without the need for dedicated actuation by utilizing passive particle jamming resulted from forces in interacting with the environment. The VSPP can cooperate with any kind of actuators, soft or rigid, to function as a compliant and robust robotic hand. A prototype robotic hand based on VSPP could maintain reliable grasping even when pierced by sharp objects such as a needle, a cactus, and a durian. This durability is effective both in air and underwater, thus presents new possibilities for the soft robotic hand to work in a harsh environment. The inherent multidirectional compliance of the VSPP makes safety in human/robot interaction guaranteed. The design and modeling presented in this research will provide useful guidance in VSPP applications. A prototype gripper, VSPP-3, composed of three 2-segments VSPP fingers and pneumatic joints, has been built for demonstrations in reliable and robust grasping of daily objects. The sample grasping has shown that the proposed VSPP has great potential for a robust and durable soft robotic hand or gripper design.

Dedicated experiments using the fabricated prototypes were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed robotic anthropomorphic system via a series of workspace, grasping, and in-hand manipulation tasks. The proposed BCL-13 hand offers a promising design solution to a light weight, dexterous, affordable, and highly anthropomorphic robotic hand design.

This paper presents an aerial manipulator robot for door opening mission. Although general aerial robots had the advantages of flying in the air without affected by the ground condition, they could not move to another room when the door was closed. To overcome this difficulty, we propose a new configuration of the aerial manipulator with perching function, knob-twisting function, and door-pushing function. With regard to knob-twisting function, the design concept of a manipulator for the aerial robot is introduced, which is to decouple the access motion from the force-requiring one to be composed of the lightweight actuator. To realize this concept, an airbag actuator with variable restriction is newly introduced. The validity of the proposed methods were experimentally verified by using the developed prototype.

This paper describes the methodology applied to obtain a functional prototype of a robotic hand considering anthropometric characteristics. An analysis by image processing is made from computerized tomographics (CT) to generate a model of the prototype which is then utilized for the development of the analytical study for the synthesis of a four bar sub-mechanism suitable to generate optimal trajectories to grasp objects in a manner such as puntual, palmar, lateral, cylindrical and spherical. In this sense, the scientific and technological relevance obtained from this work is based on the diversity of the device executed movements in addition to its ability to adapt different auxiliary components to perform some function with the amputated trunnion member, so that the system is designed to be applicable as a prosthesis. In this sense, this proposal aims to get a working prototype with versatile features to handle objects with different geometries considering the system functionality...

This paper proposes an adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) approach to solve the grasp planning problem. Each particle represents a configuration set describing the posture of the robotic hand. The aim of this algorithm is to search for the optimum configuration that satisfies a good stability. The approach uses a Guided Random Generation (GRG) to guide the particles in the generating process. A shape-based object "parameter factor" is generated from the GRG process so that, it can be considered in the fitness function. According to the number of contacts between the fingertips and the object, the algorithm can take off the inactive particles. The kinematic of the modeled hand is described and incorporated in the fitness function in order to compute the contact positions. The APSO is tested in the HandGrasp simulator with four different objects and the experimental results demonstrate that this approach outperforms the compared simple PSO in terms of solution accuracy, convergence speed and algorithm reliability.

: The present Phase II of Smart Prosthetic Hand Technology focuses on the four closely connected areas of EMG signal identification and estimation, hand motion estimation, intelligent embedded systems and control, robotic hand and biocompatibility and signaling. The developed identification algorithm using a new sensor array, a proposed hybrid estimation algorithm will provide for the decomposition and inference of multiple signals. Different categories of amputation level will be simulated and the identification of EMG signals will be tested and adapted to these different cases. Next, the proposed sensing and actuation system for the artificial hand overcomes the limitations on dexterous manipulation of the prosthetic hands. Strategies on grasping and manipulation will be developed to complement the myoelectric signals. The proposed fusion of soft and hard embedded control systems strategy will alleviate the present problems associated with prosthetic devices. Finally, by investiga...

Este trabajo aborda el problema de la sintesis de prensiones con “force-closure” para un objeto articulado 3D constituido por 3 eslabones y considerando contactos sin friccion. La superficie de cada eslabon se representa por medio de un conjunto finito de puntos. En primer lugar se presenta una metodologia por medio de la cual se define el espacio de fuerzas generalizadas generado por fuerzas aplicadas en los eslabones de un objeto articulado 3D. En segundo lugar se describe el algoritmo por medio del cual se calcula el conjunto de puntos que permiten una prension con FC. El enfoque ha sido implementado y en el articulo se incluyen algunos ejemplos ilustrativos.

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Assembly processes represent fifty percent of the time hended for manufacturing products. It also accounts from twenty to seventy percent of the total cost of the products. Because of these reasons from the early 70´s some methods for design for assembly have been proposed. The goal of these methods is to make possible cheaper and faster assembly processes.
Boothroyd´s method is the first of its kind. Its use has been extended all over the world. Some other methods, such as the Lucas and Hitachi methods have also been quite well accepted. However, these methods only consider small and light weight parts, so it is necessary to have a method suitable to analyse big, bulky and heavy parts.
This paper presents a preliminary study of the ease of assembly of different bulky and heavy parts that will be used to generate a methodology for evaluate this kind of parts for their assembly. This paper also presents the results obtained in an industrial application.

This paper addresses issues concerning the integration of artificial limbs with amputees. From the reported literature, it is evident that the afferent feedback to prosthetic users can help with their ability to control the device. In addition, incorporation of such a feedback system increases the ownership sensation of amputees with their artificial limbs. This paper includes an overview of research findings on the development of non-invasive sensory feedback (afferent) systems for hand amputees. The reviewed stimulators for the afferent system are based on vibration and electrical systems, and a combination of the two methods.

The primary goal of this work is to control the end-point position of a planar single link flexible robot manipulator,from point A to point B. We first introduce the non-minimum phase problem of flexible manipulators. The simulation tools used,

In this study, the Self-adaptive strategy algorithm for controlling parameters in Differential Evolution algorithm (ISADE) improved from the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, as well as the upgraded version of the algorithms has been applied to solve the Inverse Kinetics (IK) problem for the redundant robot with 7 Degree of Freedom (DoF). The results were compared with 4 other algorithms of DE and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as well as Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms. These algorithms are tested in three different Scenarios for the motion trajectory of the end effector of in the workspace. In the first scenario, the IK results for a single point were obtained. 100 points randomly generated in the robot's workspace was input parameters for Scenario 2, while Scenario 3 used 100 points located on a spline in the robot workspace. The algorithms were compared with each other based on the following criteria: execution time, endpoint distance error, number of generations required and especially quality of the joints' variable found. The comparison results showed 2 main points: firstly, the ISADE algorithm gave much better results than the other DE and PSO algorithms based on the criteria of execution time, endpoint accuracy and generation number required. The second point is that when applying Pro-ISADE, Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms, in addition to the ability to significantly improve the above parameters compared to the ISADE, DE and PSO algorithms, it also ensures the quality of solved joints' values.

In this study, the Self-adaptive strategy algorithm for controlling parameters in Differential Evolution algorithm (ISADE) improved from the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, as well as the upgraded version of the algorithms has been applied to solve the Inverse Kinetics (IK) problem for the redundant robot with 7 Degree of Freedom (DoF). The results were compared with 4 other algorithms of DE and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) as well as Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms. These algorithms are tested in three different Scenarios for the motion trajectory of the end effector of in the workspace. In the first scenario, the IK results for a single point were obtained. 100 points randomly generated in the robot's workspace was input parameters for Scenario 2, while Scenario 3 used 100 points located on a spline in the robot workspace. The algorithms were compared with each other based on the following criteria: execution time, endpoint distance error, number of generations required and especially quality of the joints' variable found. The comparison results showed 2 main points: firstly, the ISADE algorithm gave much better results than the other DE and PSO algorithms based on the criteria of execution time, endpoint accuracy and generation number required. The second point is that when applying Pro-ISADE, Pro-DE and Pro-PSO algorithms, in addition to the ability to significantly improve the above parameters compared to the ISADE, DE and PSO algorithms, it also ensures the quality of solved joints' values.

This paper presents a review on main topic regarding to anthropomorphic robotic hands developed in the last years, taking into account the more important mechatronics designs submit on the literature, and making a comparison between them. The next chapters deepen on level of anthropomorphism and dexterity in advanced actuated hands and upper limbs prostheses, as well as a brief overview on issues such as grasping, transmission mechanisms, sensory and actuator system, and also a short introduction on under-actuated robotic hands is reported.

This paper presents a review on main topic regarding to anthropomorphic robotic hands developed in the last years, taking into account the more important mechatronics designs submit on the literature, and making a comparison between them. The next chapters deepen on level of anthropomorphism and dexterity in advanced actuated hands and upper limbs prostheses, as well as a brief overview on issues such as grasping, transmission mechanisms, sensory and actuator system, and also a short introduction on under-actuated robotic hands is reported.

Contributions, editorials and links here https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/29753/human-like-robotic-hands-for-biomedicalapplications-and-beyond Human hands are amazing from an engineering viewpoint, as well as from a biological and anatomical perspective. Not to mention their sensory motor control system, which allows such a 'gripper' to manipulate any type of daily-life objects, to touch and feel, to interact with other beings and to express thoughts, sensations, and affections. We are also looking at solutions which are easy to be replicated and which provide an easy and intuitive interaction between the device and the end-user

Speech is one of the most common forms of communication in humans. Speech commands are essential parts of multimodal controlling of prosthetic hands. In the past decades, researchers used automatic speech recognition systems for controlling prosthetic hands by using speech commands. Automatic speech recognition systems learn how to map human speech to text. Then, they used natural language processing or a look-up table to map the estimated text to a trajectory. However, the performance of conventional speech-controlled prosthetic hands is still unsatisfactory. Recent advancements in generalpurpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs) enable intelligent devices to run deep neural networks in real-time. Thus, architectures of intelligent systems have rapidly transformed from the paradigm of composite subsystems optimization to the paradigm of end-to-end optimization. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end convolutional neural network (CNN) that maps speech 2D features directly to trajectories for prosthetic hands. The proposed convolutional neural network is lightweight, and thus it runs in real-time in an embedded GPGPU. The proposed method can use any type of speech 2D feature that has local correlations in each dimension such as spectrogram, MFCC, or PNCC. We omit the speech to text step in controlling the prosthetic hand in this paper. The network is written in Python with Keras library that has a TensorFlow backend. We optimized the CNN for NVIDIA Jetson TX2 developer kit. Our experiment on this CNN demonstrates a root-mean-square error of 0.119 and 20ms running time to produce trajectory outputs corresponding to the voice input data. To achieve a lower error in real-time, we can optimize a similar CNN for a more powerful embedded GPGPU such as NVIDIA AGX Xavier.

In this paper, a low cost mobile foot pressure scanning device has been developed which has linked with the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for continuous monitoring of human foot plantar-pressure. The device was attached to test subjects who then went through a regimen of varied walking, jumping and turning action on the ground. Data was collected simultaneously through WSN device. In this project, the hardware and software system have been developed for detecting, collecting, transmitting and finally analyzing the collected data. To estimate the peak pressure points on the foot sole, several experiments were conducted.

Elaborar en la Facultad de Ciencias Medicas de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala una protesis de mano robotica adaptada para movimientos simples util a pacientes con amputacion transradial Proyecto aplicativo. Se utilizo tecnologia de impresion en 3D, servomotores y microcontroladores. Se descargo un diseno tridimensional de mano derecha, se realizo un modelo tridimensional de antebrazo, se mando a imprimir los modelos tridimensionales en PLA (acido polilactico), se armaron las piezas en su totalidad, posteriormente se diseno y programo circuitos integrados para controlar los servomotores. Por ultimo se hizo pruebas de funcionalidad con diferentes movimientos programados. Se logro realizar una mano manufacturada con materiales economicos disponibles en el mercado guatemalteco, programada para movimientos simples, con el proposito final de adaptarla a un paciente. Es posible disenar y construir una mano robotica para pacientes con amputacion transradial a partir de un softwar...

The use and development of plantar pressure measurement systems (PPMs) have increased in recent years, in order to understand and objectively evaluate the interaction between the feet and the support surfaces. The PPMs are mainly made with resistive sensor arrays, which have problems associated with crosstalk reading errors. Several circuits aimed at reducing the crosstalk effect have been investigated; however, none of these circuits were evaluated in large-area matrices or practical applications. Thus, in this work, we explain the development and characterization of the LiebScan system, which is a stationary PPMs with 2304 sensels based on the improved isolated drive feedback circuit for crosstalk control. The commercial equipment recommended for PPM linearization and characterization of a large-area matrix is a high-cost pneumatic device. In this sense, we propose a characterization by areas using a universal testing machine and an artificial neural network, since each sensel has an individual and unique response. Although the LiebScan system supports pressures up to 300 kPa, it presents competitive characteristics when compared with commercial equipment, in terms of accuracy, hysteresis, creep, crosstalk, and center of pressure processing. The most remarkable feature among these cited before is the low crosstalk effect, with a mean error of 0.23%. The pressures measured because of this crosstalk error are below the pressure threshold, thus, the crosstalk effect is practically null. This work describes the design, development, characterization and detailed evaluation of a PPMs with commercial features.

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public.

In this work, we consider the problem of recognition of object manipulation actions. This is a challenging task for real everyday actions, as the same object can be grasped and moved in different ways depending on its functions and geometric constraints of the task. We propose to leverage grasp and motion-constraints information, using a suitable representation, to recognize and understand action intention with different objects. We also provide an extensive experimental evaluation on the recent Yale Human Grasping dataset consisting of large set of 455 manipulation actions. The evaluation involves a) Different contemporary multi-class classifiers, and binary classifiers with one-vsone multi-class voting scheme, and b) Differential comparisons results based on subsets of attributes involving information of grasp and motion-constraints. Our results clearly demonstrate the usefulness of grasp characteristics and motion-constraints, to understand actions intended with an object.

This paper proposes a soft sensor embedded in a soft ring actuator with five fingers as a soft hand to identify the bifurcation of manipulated objects during the inhand manipulation process. The manipulation is performed by breaking the symmetry method with an underactuated control system by bifurcating the object to clockwise or counterclockwise rotations. Two soft sensors are embedded in parallel over a single soft finger, and the difference in the resistance measurements is compared when the finger is displaced or bent in a particular direction, which can identify the bifurcation direction and aid in the break of symmetry approach without the need of external tracking devices. The sensors performance is also characterised by extending and bending the finger without an object interaction. During an experiment that performs a break of symmetry, manipulated objects turn clockwise and counterclockwise depending on the perturbation and actuation frequency, sensors can track the direction of rotation. The embedded sensors provide a self-sensing capability for implementing a closed-loop control in future work. The soft ring actuator performance presents a self-organisation behaviour with soft fingers rotating an object without a required control for rotating the object. Therefore, the soft fingers are an underactuated system with complex behaviour when interacting with objects that serve in-hand manipulation field.

Boneless soft robotic fingers cannot apply concentrated forces to pinch a delicate object. This letter reports a three-dimensional design of dielectric elastomer fingers with higher flexural stiffness and close to 90° voltage-controllable bending for object gripping and pinching. It makes use of tension arch flexures to elevate a pre-stretched dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) into a roof shape and thus magnifies the tension-induced moment, 40 times higher than a flat DEA does, to bend a stiff base frame. Such fingers make normally close-grippers to lift a payload 8–9 times their weight. They also make normally open grippers that pinch a highly deformable raw egg yolk.

Soft-bodied robots, due to their intrinsic compliance, have shown great potential for operating within unstructured environment and interacting with unknown objects. This paper deals with automatic design and fabrication of soft robots. From a structure point of view, we synthesize a soft cable-driven gripper by recasting its mechanical design as a topology optimization problem. Building on previous work on compliant mechanism optimization, we model the interactions between the gripper and objects more practically, in form of pressure loadings and friction tractions, and further, we investigate how the interaction uncertainties affect the optimization solution by varying the contact location and area. The optimized soft fingers were 3D printed and then assembled to build a gripper. The experiments show that the gripper can handle a large range of unknown objects of different shapes and weights (up to 1 kilogram), with different grasping modes. This work represents an important step toward leveraging the full potential of the freeform design space to generate novel soft-bodied robots.

This paper introduces a new gripper mechanism that is capable of grasping objects of various sizes and shapes without the need for a closed-loop control system. Industries such as the food and beverage industry are seeking innovative soft grippers with a simplified control system. The proposed design utilizes a rotary mechanism with springs to achieve both force-closure and form-closure grasping. The design sets itself apart from most soft grippers with its ability to offer grasping forces in all lateral directions. The gripper is designed in a cylindrical shape and is actuated by a stepper motor with a gearbox to enhance the torque. Three stacked curvilinear and linear rails convert the motor’s rotational motion into linear motion. The grasping component consists of three curved parts, each incorporating numerous compression springs. Currently, the gripper can effectively grasp objects ranging from five to nine centimeters in diameter, with a maximum height of ten centimeters. Howe...

In current years, the application of biopotential signals has received a lot of attention in literature. One of these signals is an electromyogram (EMG) generated by active muscles. Surface EMG (sEMG) signal is recorded over the skin, as the representative of the muscle activity. Since its amplitude can be as low as 50 μV, it is sensitive to undesirable noise signals such as power-line interferences. This study aims at designing a battery-powered portable four-channel sEMG signal acquisition system. The performance of the proposed system was assessed in terms of the input voltage and current noise, noise distribution, synchronization and input noise level among different channels. The results indicated that the designed system had several inbuilt operational merits such as low referred to input noise (lower than 0.56 μV between 8 Hz and 1000 Hz), considerable elimination of power-line interference and satisfactory recorded signal quality in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. The muscle conduction velocity was also estimated using the proposed system on the brachial biceps muscle during isometric contraction. The estimated values were in then normal ranges. In addition, the system included a modular configuration to increase the number of recording channels up to 96.

Soft robotics is an emerging technology in which engineers create flexible devices for use in a variety of applications. In order to advance the wide adoption of soft robots, ensuring their trustworthiness is essential; if soft robots are not trusted, they will not be used to their full potential. In order to demonstrate trustworthiness, a specification needs to be formulated to define what is trustworthy. However, even for soft robotic grippers, which is one of the most mature areas in soft robotics, the soft robotics community has so far given very little attention to formulating specifications. In this work, we discuss the importance of developing specifications during development of soft robotic systems, and present an extensive example specification for a soft gripper for pick-and-place tasks for grocery items. The proposed specification covers both functional and non-functional requirements, such as reliability, safety, adaptability, predictability, ethics, and regulations. We also highlight the need to promote verifiability as a first-class objective in the design of a soft gripper.

Hazardous environments such as in industry sector with high chemical usage give high risks to the safety of workers. These risks can be reduced by designing robotic hand that is able to replace human works. For the industry purpose, the robotic hand needs to have a higher performance in accuracy, stability and consistency. However, the current robotic hand in industry is not flexible, which means it cannot be used for different tasks. Therefore, a multi-purpose robotic hand was developed. In this paper, the objectives of this research are to design and develop a PID controller for improving the performances of a robotic hand system. The experimental results prove that the PID controller shows good performances with the steady state error less than 0.110 for the input reference, 300 respectively.

Antecedentes: La amputación transradial, que implica la perdida de la extremidad superior por debajo del codo, es una realidad que afecta profundamente la vida de las personas. Objetivo: La investigación consideró como objetivo modelar y simular el movimiento de los dedos de la mano de una prótesis para pacientes adultos con amputación transradial, para incrementar su calidad de vida permitiéndoles realizar con mayor facilidad actividades cotidianas específicas. Metodología: Se realizó el análisis morfológico y diseño CAD de la mano utilizando como modelo la mano de un paciente adulto voluntario con amputación transradial derecha, asimismo, se detalló el diseño CAD del dedo pulgar de 2 GDL utilizando el software de ingeniería SolidWorks Professional. Luego se realizó el modelamiento cinemático de los dedos de la mano utilizando el algoritmo de Denavit – Hartemberg y se simuló los movimientos de los dedos utilizando el software de ingeniería Matlab. Resultados: Se obtuvo las posiciones iniciales y finales del extremo de los dedos de la mano, así como, las trayectorias durante la simulación del cierre de la mano. Conclusiones: La toma de medidas de un paciente maximiza la posibilidad de implementar un prototipo funcional. El modelamiento cinemático permite simular las trayectorias de los dedos de la mano con el software Matlab.

The field of robotics has advanced significantly in recent years, with the emergence of sophisticated robot simulation and code generation software tools. These tools have revolutionized the way robots are designed, programmed, and deployed in real-world scenarios. This study provides an overview of the various robot simulation and code generation software tools available today, their key features, and their applications in different domains such as manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture. The study also explores the benefits and challenges of using these software tools, and discusses future directions in this rapidly evolving field. The study could highlight some of the popular robot simulation and code generation software tools such as ROS, Gazebo, V-REP, MATLAB/Simulink, and RobotStudio. It could discuss how these tools can help reduce the time and cost associated with building and testing physical robots by allowing for virtual testing and prototyping. The study could also examine the role of these tools in facilitating robot-human collaboration, as well as in addressing safety and ethical considerations in robot design. The abstract could mention the potential impact of these software tools on the future of robotics, particularly in terms of enabling the development of more intelligent, autonomous, and adaptable robots. Finally, the study could highlight some of the limitations and future research directions for these tools, such as the need for more accurate and realistic simulations, better integration with physical hardware, and improved code optimization techniques.