Assessment and influence of internal rigid core on the contact parameters for soft hemispherical fingertips

The main purpose of the present work is to develop an artificial fingertip comprised of a soft layer and an inner rigid core, which emulates a human one with skin and bone. The influences of introducing the core and the effects of variations in thickness of the soft layer over the contact parameters are investigated. From the results, it is evident that the power law theory proposed by (Xydas N, Kao I. Int. J. Rob. Res. 1999, 18, 941–950) becomes invalid in this criterion; by contrast, if the power law theory acts for finger tips with internal cores, the conclusion may be redefined in such a way that the soft material behaves more softly in the presence of internal cores and the dimensionless number, core-soft layer coefficient F cs ≈0.5, is the critical parameter which produces the change of behavior. Moreover, soft finger tips with an inner core are preferable to entirely soft ones, as a higher grasping stability is achieved with the same area of contact, and the conforming nature of the fingers is maintained.