This paper investigates the kinematic structure of robotic fingers, presents a linkage type of multi-phalanx (multi-joint) robotic fingers, and delivers geometric analysis. The new type of robotic fingers is driven by a three-pivoted linkage constituting a mechanism of two degrees of freedom. On the basis of mechanism decomposition with decoupled kinematics, this paper produces the closed-form kinematic equations for modelling the linkage. Decoupling the linkage into a loop linkage and a function generator of a four-bar linkage, the linkage geometric property and workspace are explored and a stiffness map is produced.
The paper further develops the linkage Jacobian matrix and investigates the workspace characteristics.
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