The hydra hand: a mode-switching underactuated gripper with precision and power grasping modes
File(s)2309.14266v2.pdf (5.09 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Chappell, Digby
Bello, Fernando
Kormushev, Petar
Rojas, Nicolas
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Human hands are able to grasp a wide range of object sizes, shapes, and weights, achieved via reshaping and altering their apparent grasping stiffness between compliant power and rigid precision. Achieving similar versatility in robotic hands remains a challenge, which has often been addressed by adding extra controllable degrees of freedom, tactile sensors, or specialised extra grasping hardware, at the cost of control complexity and robustness. We introduce a novel reconfigurable four-fingered two-actuator underactuated gripper—the Hydra Hand—that switches between compliant power and rigid precision grasps using a single motor, while generating grasps via a single hydraulic actuator—exhibiting adaptive grasping between finger pairs, enabling the power grasping of two objects simultaneously. The mode switching mechanism and the hand's kinematics are presented and analysed, and performance is tested on two grasping benchmarks: one focused on rigid objects, and the other on items of clothing. The Hydra Hand is shown to excel at grasping large and irregular objects, and small objects with its respective compliant power and rigid precision configurations. The hand's versatility is then showcased by executing the challenging manipulation task of safely grasping and placing a bunch of grapes, and then plucking a single grape from the bunch.
Date Issued
2023-11-01
Date Acceptance
2023-09-22
Citation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023, 8 (11), pp.7599-7606
ISSN
2377-3766
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
7599
End Page
7606
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume
8
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-09-29