Theoretical and Experimental Characterization of a New Robotic gripper’s Joint

Underactuation and compliant structures have been exploited in the design of robotic grippers and hands since these features allow to simplify the hardware and control structure of the gripper while maintaining a suitable level of robustness and adaptability with respect to task and environmental uncertainties. On the other hand, robotic fingers composed of deformable structures introduce new challenges in the kinematic and dynamic modelling, necessary both in the design and control phases. This paper presents the characterization of a new wave-shaped compliant joint that can be used to compose monolithic underactuated compliant fingers. The characterization has been performed both with numerical analyses and with experimental measures. Therefore, such identification will be used in the synthesis of underactuated grippers and other robotic devices.