Compliant Robotic Finger Design for One-Way Linear Actuators

This paper investigates the design of a compliant robotic finger with beam flexure joints to act as antagonists against a known actuator load. Stiffness based flexure design equations are derived from a static analysis of the equivalent joint torques caused by end effector loading and the desired end effector pose. The beam flexure stiffnesses are then compared against a finite element analysis for a range of flexure lengths. Two 3D printed compliant finger prototypes are designed using this methodology and tested experimentally. The results indicate that the simple beam flexures have appropriate stiffnesses and the finger mechanism is able to achieve the desired pose at loads near the designed-for linear actuator forces.