Sunil Belligundu Thesis Abstract

DESIGN AND PROTOTYPING OF A MECHANICAL FINGER FOR AN ARTIFICIAL HAND

Sunil Belligundu, M.S.
The University of Texas at Arlington, 2001
Supervising Professor: Panayiotis S. Shiakolas

    Artificial hands and fingers have been developed applying robotic principles for the past two decades, but there has been no finger developed that can be easily removed from the artificial hand and replaced by another. This thesis is concerned with the development of such a mechanical finger. This finger has three parallel degrees of freedom and can be quickly and easily removed from the hand via a Quick-Connect-Disconnect (QCD) mechanism. The finger design can be divided into four parts—the actuation mechanism, the link design, the transmission mechanism, and the QCD design. A pulley-belt design been conceived for the actuation mechanism. The transmission mechanism has been designed so that there is a transfer of rotational motion through the QCD plates and the rotational motion is converted into linear motion of the belts for actuation purposes. A Generation I prototype of the finger has been built to study and prove the mechanisms designed.

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