Kinematic Analysis and Prototype of a Metamorphic Anthropomorphic Hand With a Reconfigurable Palm

Abstract

A novel metamorphic anthropomorphic hand is for the first time introduced in this paper. This robotic hand has a reconfigurable palm that generates changeable topology and augments dexterity and versatility of the hand. Structure design of the robotic hand is presented and based on mechanism decomposition kinematics of the metamorphic anthropomorphic hand is characterized with closed-form solutions leading to the workspace investigation of the robotic hand. With characteristic matrix equation, twisting motion of the metamorphic robotic hand is investigated to reveal both dexterity and manipulability of the metamorphic hand. Through a prototype, grasping and prehension of the robotic hand are tested to illustrate characteristics of the new metamorphic anthropomorphic hand.

Recent development on innovation design of reconfigurable mechanisms in China

“…Compared with a traditional robot hand, the palm of the proposed hand is moveable and reconfigurable, thereby enhancing the dexterity and range of applications of the hand. The hand has been successfully used for deboning and muscle extraction, paper-and-board packaging in the food industry, and grasping of flexible objects [23,24]. Ding and Xu [25] developed a novel metamorphic hybrid wheel-legged rover that possesses the advantages of the two manners of locomotion of walking in four-leg mode and moving in wheeled-vehicle mode.…”

Spherical trigonometry constrained kinematics for a dexterous robotic hand with an articulated palm

“…This is accomplished by the application of spherical trigonometry which allows to solve the kinematics of the palm without the use of quadratic equations, as is done in previous works. 17,28 …”

“…These computed joint angles are then used to form homogeneous transform matrices based on the work of Wei. 17 These homogeneous transform matrices and vertices are then fed into a standard C++ / DirectX10 pipeline to render the hand on screen. Figure 11(a) shows the dexterous operating mode of the hand where no palm joint is singular.…”

“…In order to reduce the limitations and provide robotic hands with greater workspace and additional dexterity and versatility, a novel metamorphic robotic hand was invented and developed by Dai and his colleagues [14][15][16][17] based on the concept of metamorphosis 18 stemming from origami folding. 19,20 The novelty of the metamorphic robotic hand lies in the introduction of an articulated palm which is formed by a spherical metamorphic linkage that provides the palm capability of changing mobility, topology and configuration.…”

“…Using loop equations Cui and Dai, 28 and Wei et al 17 investigated kinematics, workspace and manipulability of the metamorphic robotic hand. However, the work presented in refs.…”