A novel underactuated multi-fingered soft robotic hand for prosthetic application

Robotic hand plays a very important role as it is required to hold and place the object at the desired location. There has been a lot of research on the flexible pneumatic rubber or polymer based actuators for soft gripper applications. This paper is investigating asymmetric bellow flexible pneumatic actuator (ABFPA) as a bending joint made of suitable rubber material in the construction of a novel underactuated multi-jointed, multi-fingered soft robotic hand for prosthetic application. The proposed asymmetric actuator has a single internal chamber and is simple, compact and easy to manufacture. Several actuator designs are analyzed and validated experimentally. It is found that the effect of shape and eccentricity of the ABFPA plays an important role in the bending of the actuator. By proper selection of materials and manufacturing of the ABFPA with reinforcement, a versatile dexterous hand can be fabricated. The present work has paved the way for extensive research on this innovative technique as it holds out the true potential for innumerable and very interesting application in various areas.