This paper presents the design of a three fingered, single degree of freedom robotic hand for prosthetic applications.

The main characteristic of this robotic hand is its spring steel and electric motor actuation system, which is based on utilization of spring steels flexibility for facilitating finger movement. This approach uses the mechanism to generate the desired grasping trajectory rather than actuating the joints of the fingers independently, therefore requires only one degree of freedom. For this motive, a model of the fingertip displacement of the mechanism is derived by a nonlinear bending analysis and a mathematical model for pinching and holding configurations is obtained. This approach uses the mechanism to generate the desired grasping trajectory rather than actuating the joints of the fingers independently,

INTRODUCTION Technology has been developing day by day according to the needs of humankind and robotics is one of the most rapid evolving areas of science today. The public use of robots is no longer an idea of science fiction; they are becoming an intrinsic part of our lives. Today robots exist nearly everywhere, making our lives easier, saving us time by performing time consuming jobs instead of us such as vacuuming floors, responding voice commands, challenging in various video games, cleaning or performing critical operations such laparoscopic surgery by providing precision beyond human capabilities. Even though the world of robotics is so extensive, this design project is concerned with a biomedical application of robotics: developing a prosthetic hand with dexterous manipulation in which multiple manipulators (fingers) cooperate to grasp and manipulate objects. [1] The concept of a mechanical system in engineering refers to a set of objects that operate on mechanical principles. When biomedical is considered mechanical systems are designed to look like as natural as possible. Human body is an example of a natural system where the interaction of the elements results in an output naturally; however a man-made system is designed with an objective, which can be achieved by number of inputs such as requirements, constraints, programming and control. For an intelligent robotic mechanical system it is expected to generate the output based on its acuity [1]. Figure 1.1 pictures the levels and sublevels of a mechanical system.

Figure 1.1 Types of Mechanical Systems Reprinted from Proquest, by N. Jafargholibeik, 2011, Retrieved from http://0search.proquest.com.seyhan.library.boun.edu.tr/docview/873576317/previewPDF?accountid=9645

As an important mechanical system, prosthetic hands are utilized to approximate the appearance and function of natural hand for amputees, who have endured the removal of some part of their bodies such as hand, arm and leg, due to either illness or accident. Many models have limited abilities but fortunately as technology advanced in time, gripping and moving in a natural manner with the wrist and forearm has become possible.

I.I Motivation It was reported in 2012 that Turkeys disability rate has reached 12.3% and about one-fifth of those disabled were having dexterity impairments [3]. Dexterity impairment is defined as lost or reduced function of upper limbs, which makes activities related to grasping and manipulating objects difficult or even impossible. This not only brings huge inconvenience to their daily lives, but also causes tremendous frustration and upsetting, which is definitely harmful regarding their mental health. To keep their lives in normal ways, additional help or assistance is essential for them. The conventional way of solving this problem is to provide them with personal care. However such services are often not affordable and they are a big waste of manpower. With the remarkable improvements in Assistive Technology (AT) and Robotics in the last a few decades, the Assistive Robots (AR) have become an alternative solution to this problem.

Figure 1.2: MIT postdoctoral associate Aaron Edsinger gets some help from Domo, an assistive robot he has been developing for the last three years. Reprinted [or adapted] from web.mti.edu, by A.. Trafton, 2007, Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/domo.html.

I.II Previous Works The term robot originates from the Czech word robota, generally translated as "forced labor." [4] This describes the majority of robots fairly well. Most robots in the world are designed for heavy, repetitive manufacturing work. However, when robotic hands are considered as biomedical assistive systems, the development has no clear start. A time line with important breakthroughs in the development of robotic dexterous manipulation systems and with some well known robotic hands is summarized in Figure 1.3.Some important characteristics of these hands are listed in Table 1.1. When the table and the figure is observed it can be seen that most hands make use of electrical actuators, and that tendons are the most preferred ways of transmission of force. In later years pneumatic muscles were sometimes used. Most of the mentioned hands have an anatomically human hand-like character, as can be seen in the amount of fingers, which is usually kept at five.

Figure 1.3: A time line on development of dexterous robotic manipulation. Reprinted from Overview of dexterous manipulation (255), by Niels-Cutkosky & Okamura. 2000

Table 1.1: Famous robotic hands Reprinted from An introductory revision to humanoid robot hands,by Armada & Ponticelli, 2005.

Figure 1.4: DLR Hand I & MLR Hand & Dexterous Hand Reprinted from mindtrans.narod The best five anthropomorphic robotic hands/arms Retrieved from http://mindtrans.narod.ru/hands/hands.htm

IV. II Material Selection As opposed to the conventional way of designing a product (deciding on the mechanism first, selecting the material later), the first parameter that we and our supervisor Mr. Ylmaz had confirmed to contribute to our design was the material of the finger joints and that material automatically confirmed the physical grasping phenomenon behind at the same time: using a compliant material (spring steel) was the simplest and the most efficient way of creating a dexterous single degree of freedom motion for grasping and manipulation. IV.II.i Finger Components: Spring Steel (Joint+Phalanx): Spring steel alloys posses the unique characteristic of being able to withstand considerable twisting or bending forces without any distortion. Products made from these steel alloys can be bent, compressed, extended, or twisted continuously, and they will return to their original shape without suffering any deformation up to high tensile and compressive stresses, this is the reason why wed picked up spring steel for knuckle motion of the finger. What improves spring steel stock alloys yield strength is the typical silicone content in their composition; the hardening and cold rolling operation after casting. Spring steel products are generally either cold drawn as wire or punched from flat stock. [5] Steel Alloy (Phalanx): Steel is an alloy of iron with carbon and, usually, small amounts of a number of other elements, each of which imparts some unique characteristic to steel. Our prosthetic hand design requires phalanxes to be made of stainless steel, it should be corrosion resistant and durable. Stainless steel alloys are a combination of iron, chromium and nickel frequently modified by the presence of other elements. In contrast to the rusting phenomenon that consumes ordinary steel, this type of alloys is particularly resistant to corrosion, [6] Titanium Alloy (Palm): The palm is the part with biggest dimensions of the design. The expected properties of its material are lightness, durability, impact resistance and anticorrosion. Titanium alloys are considered to be the most attractive metallic materials for biomedical applications. They are corrosion resistant, bio-compatible and they have high specific strength as compared to steel, and most importantly for our design they are 40-45% lighter than normal steels. However, they are also costly and difficult to machine, but since we have a simple shape of palm, machining will not be very expensive.

Corded Transmission System: Fish line is preferred for pulling and releasing the fingers and for connecting them to the motor in the preliminary design. Among various types of fish lines, copolymers are decided to be used which consist of two polymers or nylon-polymer blends that are manufactured as an inner and outer layer and which are designed to have less memory-shape retention and greater abrasion resistance than the others. [7]

[1] Allison M. Okamura, Niels Smaby, and Mark R. Cutkosky. Overview of dexter ous manipulation. Proceedings - IE E E International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 1:255-262, 2000. [2] J. Angeles, "Fundamental of Robotic Mechanical System", department of Mechanical engineering and Center for intelligent machines, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2002. [3] http://bianet.org/bianet/toplum/26969-turkiyede-ozurlu-orani-yuzde-12-29 [4] http://science.howstuffworks.com/robot2.htm [5] http://www.keytometals.com/page.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&site=kts&NM=371

[6] http://www.eurometaux.org/MetalsToday/MetalsFAQs/Whatarealloys.aspx [7] https://suite101.com/a/an-explanation-of-fishing-line-properties-a368203