الفهرس 
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Abstract
The manuscript describes the design, development, implementation, and experimentation of a closed loop grasping force control system for a soft robotic prosthetic hand. The developed sensing techniques do not require any sensing elements to be embedded in the finger, which significantly decreases manufacturing complexity and cost. The literature review provides design requirements and highlights the significance of the developed grasping force control system.
The hand design begins with the development of flexure hinges used as joints for the prosthetic’s fingers. Iteration and testing led to the development of a finger design and a hand design for the prosthetic. The developmental process for the sensing method designs is documented, along with preliminary experimentation with other sensing methods. Two successful sensing methods that do not require embedding a sensing element in the finger were achieved. The tendon tension sensing method and the actuator housing bending moment sensing method both utilize strain gauges and custom design loadcells to acquire a signal proportional to the grasping force of the finger or hand.
A PI force controller was developed to control the prosthetic’s grasping force. Two experimental setups were designed, and multiple tests were carried out to demonstrate the performance of the sensing methods and the grasping force control system. In the first setup, the tendon tension sensing method was applied to a single finger of monolithic structure mechanically coupled to an external, market-bought loadcell to validate the results. The second setup featured the actuator housing bending moment sensing method applied to an entire soft robotic prosthetic hand. A flexible test object was fabricated for the hand to grasp with three different force setpoints and three different grasp patterns. Since the test object is made of flexible material, the system’s performance can be visually demonstrated through the deformation of the test object.
In conclusion, this manuscript presents a comprehensive approach to the design, development, implementation, and experimentation of a closed loop grasping force control system using two sensing methods that do not require any sensing elements to be embedded in the finger. The developed soft robotic prosthetic hand, along with the sensing methods and the PI force controller, enable the control of the grasping force of the prosthetic hand in a variety of grasping scenarios. This work is significant as it can decrease the manufacturing complexity and cost of prosthetic hands, making them more accessible to individuals who need them. Additionally, the developed sensing methods can potentially be applied to other prosthetic and robotic devices, leading to further advancements in the field.