RESEARCH ARTICLE

A novel shape memory alloy actuated soft gripper imitated hand behavior

  • Jie PAN ,
  • Jingjun YU ,
  • Xu PEI
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  • School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

Received date: 13 Oct 2021

Accepted date: 21 Apr 2022

Published date: 15 Dec 2022

Copyright

2022 Higher Education Press

Abstract

The limited length shrinkage of shape memory alloy (SMA) wire seriously limits the motion range of SMA-based gripper. In this paper, a new soft finger without silicone gel was designed based on pre bent SMA wire, and the finger was back to its original shape by heating SMA wire, rather than relying only on heat exchange with the environment. Through imitating palm movement, a structure with adjustable spacing between fingers was made using SMA spring and rigid spring. The hook structure design at the fingertip can form self-locking to further improve the load capacity of gripper. Through the long thin rod model, the relationship of the initial pre bent angle on the bending angle and output force of the finger was analyzed. The stress-strain model of SMA spring was established for the selection of rigid spring. Three grasping modes were proposed to adapt to the weight of the objects. Through the test of the gripper, it was proved that the gripper had large bending amplitude, bending force, and response rate. The design provides a new idea for the lightweight design and convenient design of soft gripper based on SMA.

Cite this article

Jie PAN , Jingjun YU , Xu PEI . A novel shape memory alloy actuated soft gripper imitated hand behavior[J]. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, 2022 , 17(4) : 44 . DOI: 10.1007/s11465-022-0700-8

Nomenclature

Abbreviations
DE Dielectric elastomer
HASEL Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic
IPMC Ionic polymer metal composite
PLA Polylactic acid
PZT Piezoelectric materials
SMA Shape memory alloy
SMP Shape memory polymer
Variables
a Pre bent angle of the SMA wire
Af Temperature at the finish of austenite transformation
As Temperature at the start of austenite transformation
D Outer diameter of SMA spring
E Young’s modulus
E(ρ) The second type of complete elliptic integral
F Force of SMA spring
Fcr Critical load
Fe Fingertip force
I Moment of inertia
K(ρ) The first type of complete elliptic integral
kAB Slope of line AB
kCA Slope of line CA
L Length of the straight SMA wire
l Length of the pre bent SMA wire
M Torque of the elastic rod
M1 Torque of the rigid skeleton
M2 Torque of the finger
Msma1 Torque of the pre bent SMA wire
Msma2 Torque of the straight SMA wire
r Wire diameter of SMA spring
s Arc length
T Temperature
xa x axis displacement generated by the free end of the SMA wire
xe x axis displacement of the finger
yDisplacement of the elastic rod along the y axis
ya y axis displacement generated by the free end of the SMA wire
ye y axis displacement of the finger
ρ1 Bending curvature
θ Bending angle of the pre bent SMA wire
θ1 Bending angle of the finger

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1813221) and the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFB1311200).

Electronic Supplementary Materials

The supplementary materials can be found in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-022-0700-8 and are accessible to authorized users.
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