Development of a robotic fingertip for adjusting friction

Research Project

Project/Area Number	17K06282
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
Research Institution	Kyushu Sangyo University
Principal Investigator	MURAKAMI Kouji 九州産業大学, 理工学部, 教授 (80380682)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000) Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000) Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
Keywords	ロボティクス / ロボットハンド / マニピュレーション / 摩擦 / 知能ロボティックス
Outline of Final Research Achievements	I have developed a novel robotic fingertip for adjusting the friction coefficient between the fingertip and an object, in order to improve manipulation skills of a robotic hand. I proposed a method to adjust the friction coefficient by vibration of a robotic fingertip with a piezo-electric actuator. The object manipulation including a slipping process by a robotic hand with two developed fingertips was successfully demonstrated in an experiment.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究では，ロボットハンドの作業能力向上を目指し，指先力や指先姿勢を変更することなく接触物体との摩擦係数を動的に変更可能なロボット指先の開発を行った．摩擦係数を変更可能な独立のパラメータとして新たに手指操作の制御則に組み込めれば，従来は困難であったロボットハンドによるすべりを伴う器用な操作の実現が期待できる．本研究成果は，人間のような高い作業能力を持つロボットハンドの実現へ向けて有益なものである．