Impact force analysis in mechanical hand design

This paper presents the derivation of the maximum impact force equation for a general two-body collision problem using the energy principle. The equation of the impact force utilizes the kinetic energy, the strain energy stored in the elastic bodies, and the energy lost due to structural damping. In a simple collision problem, results are compared with data obtained from an experiment where both the finger and the object are made with different materials. It is found that the impact force equation correlates well with the data for low stiffness.