Investigation of Discharge Characteristics of Hinges Produced with 3D Printing for Prosthetic Fingers

Year 2021, Volume: 24 Issue: 2, 575 - 583, 01.06.2021

Mine Seçkin , Ahmet Çağdaş Seçkin , Necla Yaman Turan

https://doi.org/10.2339/politeknik.698316

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Flexible hinges are joint mechanisms made of soft or flexible materials. The aim of this study is to determine the discharge characteristics of the flexible hinges used in prosthetic hands and fingers according to the production techniques and to determine the most appropriate hinge production parameters. The speed of the opening process and the energy consumption during the closing process directly depend on the structure of the flexible hinge. For this reason, it is important to examine the relationship between the change of the flexible hinge structure and its discharge in terms of oscillation and energy requirement. In the method of the study, primarily flexible hinge samples are produced using different printing parameters. In the next step, a finger-like test system is designed that uses accelerometers to measure discharge oscillations on the fingers. The test mechanism has a body and a free accelerometer. The body sensor is used to distinguish body vibrations transmitted to the free accelerometer. As a result of the measurements made with the test system, it is observed that the honeycomb shape produced higher frequency vibrations than the linear shape in terms of filling the shape. This indicates that the honeycomb filler can store a higher amount of energy as a result of stretching. As the percentage of inner fill or the number of outer shells increased, the frequency of vibration of the flexible hinge when released is found to be higher. It has been concluded that the hinge, which has the highest energy storage capacity at the lowest cost, will have a honeycomb filling shape, 30% filler, and four shells. Finally, a system that measures the power consumed for finger closing operations is presented. As a result of energy consumption levels with hinges, it has been observed that energy consumption increases as infill density and number of shell values increase. It is seen that these values are compatible with oscillation values. With this system, it is aimed to be used for parameter selection in robotic prosthetic finger application which is planned to be produced by 3D printing in the future.

Keywords

Flexible hinge, hinge tester, 3d printing, additive manufacturing, prosthetic finger

Supporting Institution

Uşak Üniversitesi

Project Number

UBAP06 2015/TP005

Thanks

This study is performed under the project named Limb Design with Wearable Soft Robotic Actuator for Amputees”, UBAP06 2015/TP005 Project in Uşak University. The 3D printer and other measurement instruments are supplied from the Electronics Laboratory of Uşak University Technical Sciences Vocational School.

References

• [1] N. Lobontiu, Compliant mechanisms: design of flexure hinges. CRC press, (2002).
• [2] R. Mutlu, G. Alici, M. in het Panhuis, and G. Spinks, “Effect of flexure hinge type on a 3D printed fully compliant prosthetic finger,” in 2015 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 790–795, (2015).
• [3] R. Mutlu, G. Alici, M. in het Panhuis, and G. M. Spinks, “3D printed flexure hinges for soft monolithic prosthetic fingers,” Soft Robotics, 3(3):120–133, (2016). [4] J. C. S. Terry, “Plastic hinge and method of making the same,” , (1961).
• [5] B. T. Cheok, K. Y. Foong, A. Y. C. Nee, and C. H. Teng, “Some aspects of a knowledge-based approach for automating progressive metal stamping die design,” Computers in Industry, 24(1):81–96, (1994).
• [6] K. S. Pister, M. W. Judy, S. R. Burgett, and R. S. Fearing, “Microfabricated hinges,” Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 33(3): 249–256, (1992).
• [7] H. Ding, S. J. Chen, and K. Cheng, “Two-dimensional vibration-assisted micro end milling: cutting force modelling and machining process dynamics,” Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 224(12): 1775–1783, (2010).
• [8] K. Suzuki, I. Shimoyama, and H. Miura, “Insect-model based microrobot with elastic hinges,” Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 3(1):4–9,(1994).
• [9] K. Cai, Y. Tian, F. Wang, D. Zhang, and B. Shirinzadeh, “Development of a piezo-driven 3-DOF stage with T-shape flexible hinge mechanism,” Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 37:125–138, (2016).
• [10] B. Siciliano and O. Khatib, Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer, (2016).
• [11] A. P. Neukermans and T. G. Slater, “Micromachined hinge having an integral torsion sensor,” Jul. 15, (1997).
• [12] L. Qiu, L. Liang, D. Li, and G. Xu, “Theoretical and experimental study on FBG accelerometer based on multi-flexible hinge mechanism,” Optical Fiber Technology, 38:142–146, (2017).
• [13] M. Liu, W. Wang, H. Song, S. Zhou, and W. Zhou, “A high sensitivity FBG strain sensor based on flexible hinge,” Sensors, 19(8):1931, (2019).
• [14] Y. Li, H. Li, T. Cheng, X. Lu, H. Zhao, and P. Chen, “Note: Lever-type bidirectional stick-slip piezoelectric actuator with flexible hinge,” Review of Scientific Instruments, 89(8): 086101, (2018).
• [15] F. Qin et al., “Actively controlling the contact force of a stick-slip piezoelectric linear actuator by a composite flexible hinge,” Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 299: 111606, (2019).
• [16] F. Lotti and G. Vassura, “A novel approach to mechanical design of articulated fingers for robotic hands,” in Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2002. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on, , 2: 1687–1692, (2002)
• [17] B. Miloradović, B. Çürüklü, M. Vujović, S. Popić, and A. Rodić, “Low–cost anthropomorphic robot hand with elastic joints–early results,” (2015).
• [18] Y. Ogahara, Y. Kawato, K. Takemura, and T. Maeno, “A wire-driven miniature five fingered robot hand using elastic elements as joints,” in Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003), 3:2672–2677. (2003).
• [19] L. Biagiotti, F. Lotti, C. Melchiorri, and G. Vassura, “Mechatronic design of innovative fingers for anthropomorphic robot hands,” in 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 3: 3187–3192, (2003).
• [20] Z. Zhu, X. Zhou, R. Wang, and Q. Liu, “A simple compliance modeling method for flexure hinges,” Science China Technological Sciences, 58(1):56–63, (2015).
• [21] M. C. Carrozza et al., “The SPRING hand: development of a self-adaptive prosthesis for restoring natural grasping,” Autonomous Robots, 16(2):125–141, (2004).
• [22] M. Andrejašic, “Mems accelerometers,” in University of Ljubljana. Faculty for mathematics and physics, Department of physics, Seminar, (2008).