LAUSR

Soft robotics are increasingly showing considerable promise for various application in underwater. It is particularly useful in conducting underwater compliant and robust grasping as an end effector compared to rigid-bodied robots. In this work, we describes the design, fabrication and performance of a soft robotic hand driven by water hydraulic for underwater bidirectional grasping. In addition to replicating the five fingers of human hand, an extra soft thumb is symmetrically arranged in active soft palm. The soft fingers is designed with four chambers to enable the bidirectional bending and deflection motions. We propose a novel elastic fiber reinforced structure to enhance and constrain the flexion movements of three palm actuators. The versatility of the underwater robotic hand is evaluated by implementing the comprehensive human grasping postures listed in Feix taxonomy and the novel bidirectional hand grasping in underwater environment. Furthermore, we developed a low-cost one-camera-multiple-mirror imaging device for presenting all-sided behavior of the complex bidirectional grasps.