Wrist and End Effector Design

The Team:

• BrianHachtmann?
• SamsonPhan
• JasonReid?

Current Work:

Research

• Kuka
• DLR
• Artisan
• Harvard Underactuated Hand

Design

• Light, safe, compliant
• underactuated or just 1 DOF

We could also just buy a solution. (Robohand, Festo, etc.) Actuation

• Look into piezoelectric actuators for wrist (lightweight, high torque) [http://www.shinsei-motor.com]
  • Haptics have one of these, currently being used by Jason & Karlin.
  • If we do buy one, recommend buying one with extension cable, nonmagnetic, and driver box.
• pneumatics (since we are already have piping)

Message from Chuck Wampler 4/4/08

For the hand: One possibility is to use a Barrett hand, since we have that in the lab. We can move it from the Barrett arm temporarily and connect an external power supply. Is the Barrett hand too heavy? Is your two-link prototype going to be full scale to match the eventual 4DOF arm?

As alternatives, we have some small pneumatic hands in storage in another location in GM, and we can check on those when everyone is back on 4/14. Also, we could just agree on some commercial hand (Schunk sells several) and let you buy it, integrate it, and bring it along.

We would like to see the arm pick up several different payloads and demonstrate good control in each case. The actual work of tuning & testing the control could be a big part of your summer work.