抄録
This paper proposes a new static elastic model of a hemispherical soft fingertip via a large contact deformation, which is required for handling and manipulation process of an object by means of a robotic hand. This work focuses on the formulation processes of an elastic force and its potential energy caused by the large deformation due to the contact with a planar object. These physical quantities are derived by introducing the infinite number of virtual springs inside the soft fingertip. It is firstly shown that these equations are functions of two variables : the maximum displacement of the hemispherical fingertip and the orientation angle of the object, and the elastic potential energy has a local minimum (LMEE) when the angle takes zero. Finally, we confirm the effectiveness of our elastic model by performing a compression test of the hemispherical soft fingertip.
