  Soft robotic hands and grippers are increasingly attracting attention as a
robotic end-effector. Compared with rigid counterparts, they are safer for
human-robot and environment-robot interactions, easier to control, lower cost
and weight, and more compliant. Current soft robotic hands have mostly focused
on the soft fingers and bending actuators. However, the palm is also essential
part for grasping. In this work, we propose a novel design of soft humanoid
hand with pneumatic soft fingers and soft palm. The hand is inexpensive to
fabricate. The configuration of the soft palm is based on modular design which
can be easily applied into actuating all kinds of soft fingers before. The
splaying of the fingers, bending of the whole palm, abduction and adduction of
the thumb are implemented by the soft palm. Moreover, we present a new design
of soft finger, called hybrid bending soft finger (HBSF). It can both bend in
the grasping axis and deflect in the side-to-side axis as human-like motion.
The functions of the HBSF and soft palm were simulated by SOFA framework. And
their performance was tested in experiments. The 6 fingers with 1 to 11
segments were tested and analyzed. The versatility of the soft hand is
evaluated and testified by the grasping experiments in real scenario according
to Feix taxonomy. And the results present the diversity of grasps and show
promise for grasping a variety of objects with different shapes and weights.

Robotics