04 June 2025
The human finger is a remarkable example of biological design. It is made up of bones, tendons, muscles, and soft tissues that work together to perform a wide range of tasks. This complex design enables fingers to transition from soft tasks, such as picking up small objects, to more forceful actions, such as holding or carrying heavy objects. A key to this flexibility is changing the stiffness in different finger parts, providing flexibility and strength.
Soft robotics focuses on creating robots using highly flexible materials that can safely interact with people and adapt to different tasks. Soft robotic fingers provide smooth and natural movements, offering the potential to revolutionize industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, assembling, and service robotics. Unlike rigid robotic fingers, soft robotic fingers offer enhanced dexterity, safety, and adaptability, enabling them to interact more safely with fragile objects and complex environments. However, soft robots often lack the structural stiffness required to perform functional tasks effectively.
In this work, EMERGE partners from the Delft University of Technology focus on the development of a robotic finger that emulates the multi-stiffness characteristics of human fingers from soft tissues (low stiffness) to tendons and cartilage (medium stiffness) to bones (high stiffness). Specifically, the authors propose utilizing a lattice configuration, parameterized by voxel size and unit cell geometry, to achieve fine-tuned stiffness properties with high precision.
Read the paper in the link below.
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