Design and Performance of Additively Manufactured Lightweight Bionic Hand

Biological hands work by picking up signals from muscle and is controlled by tensing the same muscle. This paper proposes a lightweight bionic hand built based on this concept and considering the high performance and low-cost factors. Layer manufacturing (LM) also known as 3D printing is trending manufacturing set up considering zero material waste and generating ideas into 3D geometrical model. The layers are produced one by one by lowering the material deposition platform and built as per a 3D CAD model. Layered manufacturing process is open to handle wide variety of materials such as polymers, metals, composites. In this research study, a lightweight robotic hand has been modeled using 3D CAD software and the CAD model is generated using a 3D printer. The hand is then interfaced with Arduino, where the sensors and actuators are then programmed for the individual finger movement. The individual performance of each finger is analyzed for both linear and rotational movement by getting signals from the flex sensor. Furthermore, the load carrying capacity of the hand is also analyzed. The force required to pick or lift the object by using this artificial arm is determined which is solely determined by the capacity of the servomotor being used.