Variable Moment of Inertia of Area Type Stiffness Changing Mechanism with Archshaped Thin Flat Spring

- Creation of a principle, deformation analysis, and basic stiffness evaluation -

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a stiffness changing mechanism with ark-shaped thin flat spring that mainly aimed at application as a thin fingertip of a robotic hand that can enter the gap between the target object and the environment. The mechanism switches its stiffness by changing the moment of inertia of area and is characterized by being driven only by a simple pushing mechanism. We analyzed the stiffness variation the mechanism and the magnitude of the force required for stiffness switching by the finite element method. This paper also discusses the evaluation of basic experiments using an actual machine.