A Compliant Biomimetic Artificial Finger for Anthropomorphic Robotic Hands via 3D Rapid Prototyping

This paper presents an anthropomorphic robotic finger that is composed of three biomimetic joints whose biomechanics and dynamic properties are close to their human counterparts. By using five pneumatic cylinders, the robotic finger is actuated through a series of simplified antagonistic tendons whose insertion points and moment arms at each joint are inherited from the anatomy of the human finger. The dynamics of the artificial finger is investigated under PID control for the tasks of set point stabilization and disturbance rejection, set point tracking and trajectory tracking. An air dynamic model is empirically derived for controlling the pneumatic system. The kinematic model of the artificial finger system is constructed with help of MuJoCo a physics engine custom-developed to simulate the interaction between the finger’s joints and tendons. Experimental data of the tendon excursions are used to validate the efficacy of the simulation model.