Design and development of a bioinspired subjection system to increase the contact area of a robotics manipulator

Abstract

This article exposes the design and construction of a bio-inspired fastening system to increase the contact area between the end effector and the manipulated element, with the aim of decreasing the applied pressure per air unit. The design was carried out analyzing and parametrizing the functional elements that constitute the adaptive theory ´Fin Ray´; which describes the behavior of fins of fish, concentrating especially on the pectoral fin. This theory was the basis to elaborate the mathematical model that characterizes the forced condition and the natural behavior of the system to then find the values of the vectors that describe the behavior of the fin layers, known as lightning, and that allowed to calculate the links of the clamp. Assigning values between 0 and 0.01 to the dependent variable it was possible to determine that the ray undergoes a deformation directly proportional to the assigned value, which simulates muscle activation by checking the effects on the system of the increase of the values of the main parameters of the beam and the charges applied to the system. It was determined that an increase in the cutting modulus of the internal material results in the concentration of stress produced by a large change in a small area near the base that in real conditions can cause material failure. Thanks to the adaptive capacity of the constructed prototype, the contact area between the fingers and the held object is increased, which decreases the pressure exerted per unit area, also the energy consumption is lower due to the mechanism of the arithmetic spiral, since the system is activated only when holding or releasing the object.