Synthetic finger phalanx with lifelike skin compliance

Abstract

Touching for prosthetics and social robotics is important for functional and social reasons. Current synthetic finger designs, however, are too stiff when compared to the human touch. We ask whether it would be possible for synthetic skins to mimic the skin compliance of the human finger phalanx. In this paper, finite element simulations were conducted on finger phalanx models with open pockets of 1 mm and 2 mm heights in the internal geometry. With an open pocket design, simulation results show that it is possible to have force-displacement results that are comparable to the published data of the human finger phalanx under cyclic loading. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.