Design and force control of an underactuated robotic hand for fruit and vegetable picking

To achieve non-destructive fruit and vegetable picking, an end-actuator with a simpler and more versatile structure is designed based on underactuated principle. The underactuated mechanism refers to machine that has fewer drivers compared with the number of degrees of freedom. The robotic hand designed by adopting the underactuated principle is simpler and more reliable. Due to simple structure and better adaptability to shape of objects, the robotic hand can fold the object completely with its fingers. Non-destructive harvesting is achieved by using a closed-loop force-feedback control algorithm which controls the maximum contact forces. Based on this design idea, a three-finger gripper which is driven by only one motor is designed. Through theoretical analysis, mechanism design and modeling, and structural optimization, the final model size is determined and physical production is completed. A control circuit combined with force-feedback control is designed for grasping experiments. The experimental results show that the robotic hand can achieve the desired grasping function, maximum contact force control and has such features as simple and reliable control, stable grasping and non-damaging. © 2014 Journal of Mechanical Engineering