Design method for an anthropomorphic hand able to gesture and grasp

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical method to conceive and design the kinematic model of an anthropomorphic robotic hand used for gesturing and grasping. In literature, there are few numerical methods for the finger placement of human-inspired robotic hands. In particular, there are no numerical methods, for the thumb placement, that aim to improve the hand dexterity and grasping capabilities by keeping the hand design close to the human one. While existing models are usually the result of successive parameter adjustments, the proposed method determines the fingers placements by mean of empirical tests. Moreover, a surgery test and the workspace analysis of the whole hand are used to find the best thumb position and orientation according to the hand kinematics and structure. The result is validated through simulation where it is checked that the hand looks well balanced and that it meets our constraints and needs. The presented method provides a numerical tool which allows the easy computation of finger and thumb geometries and base placements for a human-like dexterous robotic hand.

Design and Implementation of an Anthropomorphic Hand for Replicating Human Grasping Functions

“…Blair and Kramer claim that the thumb accounted for up to 40% of the function of the hand [35]. Cerruti, Chablat, Gouaillier, and Sakka present a numerical method for the thumb placement of human-inspired robotic hands [36]. Santelo, Flanders, and Soechting demonstrate experimentally that muscular synergies existed in hand-grasping postures [37], which means that the nervous system typically reduces the potential solution space for multijoint movements by using specific synergies [1], [33], [37].…”

Development of an anthropomorphic robotic hand with tactile perception

“…In the mechanical domain, the anthropomorphic robotic hand's structure systems, kinematic calculations and mechanisms of transmission of movement 1) Mechanical Design: In the mechanical design, the kinematics calculations of the robotic hand are performed, afterwards the structure is described, which was done using CAD modeling. As the human hand is formed by the joints, the robotic hand is also described with said joints as: Metacarpophalangeal (MCP), Proximal Interphalangeal (PIP), Distal Interphalangeal (DIP) and Radio-Carpal (RC), for more information about the human hand, refer to the work of [14].…”

Robotic manipulation for the shoe-packaging process

“…The grasping algorithm designed in this work is independent of the used hardware platform, i.e., the gripper hand of the robot. In this regard, tests have been performed for the grasping algorithm considering a peer review procedure, i.e., checking that the grasping algorithm was properly executed by an iCub robotic hand (by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) [63] and an IH2 Azzurra robotic hand (by Prensilia) [64]. For cases in which other algorithms were checked (e.g., the trajectory planning), a Schunk pneumatic gripper was used.…”