Analysis and design of an underactuated robotic hand

The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis is to study and analyze the solution space for the parameters that influence the design of an underactuated robotic hand. This process leads then to the determination of the optimal design parameters of the hand, given some initial constraints on the desired graspable objects, and starting with a sketch of the hand kinematics. Motivated by the commercial food handling, the final design should be able of grasping a variety of deformable objects, such as fruits and vegetables. A survey and comparison between existing robotic hands with underactuated mechanisms is initially provided. After that, a geometrical approach will be presented, which determines the grasping posture for an underactuated hand, given the relative pose (position plus orientation) for the object with respect to the hand. Another approach presented is the analysis of the force-closure property for the grasps inside the hand workspace. As a next step, both approaches are used to calculate the reachable and the force-closure workspaces for a variety of different hand configurations, objects and design parameters. Then, the centroid of the solution space, which represents two design parameters, will be determined for each case. Applying the proposed approach, an optimal hand design can be obtained depending on the considered objects that should be grasped