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Design of a variable stiffness index finger exoskeleton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2021

Abhishek Attal  and
Ashish Dutta Open the ORCID record for Ashish Dutta [Opens in a new window]
Abhishek Attal
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India
Ashish Dutta*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: adutta@iitk.ac.in
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Abstract

This paper presents the design and experimentation of a variable stiffness index finger exoskeleton consisting of four-bar mechanisms actuated by a linear actuator. The lengths of the four-bar mechanism were optimized so that it can follow a recorded index fingertip trajectory. The mechanism has a fixed compliance at the coupler of the four-bar link and a variable compliance at the linear actuator that moves the four-bar. The skeletal shape of the coupler of the finger link has been optimized using FEM. The exoskeleton can apply a constant fingertip force irrespective of the position of the fingers.

Keywords

index finger exoskeletonvariable stiffnessfour-bar mechanismfinite element analysis

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , April 2022 , pp. 1151 - 1167
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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