Mechanical Flexibility and the Design of Versatile and Dexterous Grippers

International audienceIn mechatronics design, appropriate methods are necessary to meet specific demands required for versatile gripping and dexterous manipulation tasks. This chapter reviews the mechanical flexibility that arises from the different components of a robotic gripper (structure, transmission, actuation, contact surfaces, etc.) in order to use it to benefit the overall performance of the system. The study of the actuation design and mechanical transmissions between the actuators and the joints remains crucial. The chapter reports several useful elastic elements for the mechatronic design of robotic fingers dedicated to dextral manipulation. The mechanical deformation can be advantageously exploited to simplify or optimize some components of the kinematic chain and make the overall behavior of the system more reliable. Taking into account, from the early design stage of the robotic device, the mechanical flexibility will allow us to increase manipulation capability of the gripper