Design and development of a 4 DOF portable haptic interface with multi-point passive force feedback for the index finger

This research aims to develop a portable haptic master hand with 20 degrees of freedom (DOF). Master hands are used as haptic interfaces in master-slave systems. A master-slave system consists of a haptic interface that communicates with a virtual world or an end-effector for tele-operation, such as a robot hand. The thumb and fingers are usually modeled as a serial linkage mechanism with 4 DOE So far, no 20 DOF master hands are developed that can exert perpendicular forces on the finger phalanges during the complete flexion and extension motion. In this paper, the design and development of a portable 4 DOF haptic interface for the index finger is presented. The concept utilizes a mechanical tape brake at the rolling-link mechanism (RLM) for passive force feedback. The systematic Pahl and Beitz design approach is used as an iterative design method. Important design requirements are; perpendicular forces on the finger phalanges, low friction mechanism, easy to control, no backlash, high backdrivability and lightweight.