DP-Flex with green soft silicone pads and compliant Fin Ray distal phalanges
Robots operating in human environments must manipulate common tools, which require functional grasping to interact with components like triggers and buttons. Since most objects are designed for human use, robotic grippers must adopt anthropomorphic designs featuring five-fingered topology with opposable thumbs and human-matched kinematics/phalanx dimensions. Achieving this functionality involves designing a gripper that closely mimics the human hand. Guided by trade-off challenge between being compact, powerful, compliant, simple to manufacture, and easy to deploy for learned control policies, we designed DP-Flex, a three-fingered hand actuated by seven off-the-shelf motors, featuring 3D-printed linkage parts and additional molded silicone patches to enhance grip and softness at contact points.
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DP-Flex was designed to occupy a niche between availability, fast prototyping, and dexterity. Its three-fingered design enables the hand to grasp objects using an opposable thumb and flexible distal phalanges that adapt to the shape of objects. The workspace of the fingers was optimized to ensure the thumb's opposability, enhancing the ability to perform gestures and reproduce most of Cutkosky's taxonomy.
Coming soon...