Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs
In recent years, there has been an increase in the development of medical robots to enhance interventional MRI-guided therapies and operations. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) surgical robots are particularly attractive due to their ability to provide excellent soft-tissue contrast during these pro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Actuators |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/12/4/160 |
| _version_ | 1827746417185128448 |
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| author | Phuoc Thien Do Quang Ngoc Le Quoc Viet Luong Hyun-Ho Kim Hyeong-Mo Park Yeong-Jin Kim |
| author_facet | Phuoc Thien Do Quang Ngoc Le Quoc Viet Luong Hyun-Ho Kim Hyeong-Mo Park Yeong-Jin Kim |
| author_sort | Phuoc Thien Do |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In recent years, there has been an increase in the development of medical robots to enhance interventional MRI-guided therapies and operations. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) surgical robots are particularly attractive due to their ability to provide excellent soft-tissue contrast during these procedures. This paper describes a novel design for a tendon-driven gripper that utilizes four shape memory alloy (SMA) spring actuators and variable stiffness joints controlled by SMA coils for use in MRI surgical robot applications. The contact force of the gripper link is determined by the mechanical properties of the SMA spring actuators (SSA) and the angle of each linkage, and the joint stiffness can be adjusted by varying the electrical current applied to the SMA coil. To enhance the efficiency of the SSAs, a new cooling system using water has been proposed and implemented. To validate the effectiveness of our proposed gripper, we conducted three types of experiments, namely, a single SSA experiment, a single SMA coil experiment, and a whole gripper experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed water-cooling system can effectively solve temperature issues of SMA, and the joint stiffness in the austenite state is higher than that in the martensite state. Moreover, our experiments show that the presented gripper is capable of grasping and holding objects of various shapes and weights. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T05:21:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9f7a236021974cb5ba6b8b99b368ee7c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0825 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T05:21:05Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Actuators |
| spelling | doaj.art-9f7a236021974cb5ba6b8b99b368ee7c2023-11-17T17:51:14ZengMDPI AGActuators2076-08252023-04-0112416010.3390/act12040160Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA SpringsPhuoc Thien Do0Quang Ngoc Le1Quoc Viet Luong2Hyun-Ho Kim3Hyeong-Mo Park4Yeong-Jin Kim5Department of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of KoreaIn recent years, there has been an increase in the development of medical robots to enhance interventional MRI-guided therapies and operations. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) surgical robots are particularly attractive due to their ability to provide excellent soft-tissue contrast during these procedures. This paper describes a novel design for a tendon-driven gripper that utilizes four shape memory alloy (SMA) spring actuators and variable stiffness joints controlled by SMA coils for use in MRI surgical robot applications. The contact force of the gripper link is determined by the mechanical properties of the SMA spring actuators (SSA) and the angle of each linkage, and the joint stiffness can be adjusted by varying the electrical current applied to the SMA coil. To enhance the efficiency of the SSAs, a new cooling system using water has been proposed and implemented. To validate the effectiveness of our proposed gripper, we conducted three types of experiments, namely, a single SSA experiment, a single SMA coil experiment, and a whole gripper experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed water-cooling system can effectively solve temperature issues of SMA, and the joint stiffness in the austenite state is higher than that in the martensite state. Moreover, our experiments show that the presented gripper is capable of grasping and holding objects of various shapes and weights.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/12/4/160shape memory alloyrobotvariable stiffnesssoft grippertendon-drivensoft robot |
| spellingShingle | Phuoc Thien Do Quang Ngoc Le Quoc Viet Luong Hyun-Ho Kim Hyeong-Mo Park Yeong-Jin Kim Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs Actuators shape memory alloy robot variable stiffness soft gripper tendon-driven soft robot |
| title | Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs |
| title_full | Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs |
| title_fullStr | Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs |
| title_short | Tendon-Driven Gripper with Variable Stiffness Joint and Water-Cooled SMA Springs |
| title_sort | tendon driven gripper with variable stiffness joint and water cooled sma springs |
| topic | shape memory alloy robot variable stiffness soft gripper tendon-driven soft robot |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/12/4/160 |
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