RESEARCH ON CONTACT MODEL OF ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL FLUID BASED FINGERTIP

A new design of robot fingertip which uses ERF under the elastic skin to realize fingertip compliance is described. This fingertip has a property of compliance in nature. Because damping of the ERF based fingertip can be controlled by changing the electric field strength applied on ERF layer, stable contact and grasp can be readily realized. A dynamic model of this robot fingertip is given for contact transition. Simulations on contact force, displacement and stable time are performed.