UTHM HAND: Kinematics behind the dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand

Abstract

This paper describes a novel wireless robotic hand system. The system is operated under master-slave configuration. A human operator tele-operates the slave robotic hand by wearing a master glove embedded with BendSensors. Bluetooth has been chosen as the communication medium between master and slave. The master glove is designed to acquire the joint angles of the operator's hand and send to slave robotic hand. The slave robotic hand imitates the movement of human operator. The UTHM robotic hand comprises of five fingers (four fingers and one thumb), each having four degrees of freedom (DOF), which can perform flexion, extension, abduction, adduction and also circumduction. For the actuation purpose, pneumatic muscles and springs are used. The paper exemplifies the design for the robotic hand and provides the kinematic analysis of all the joints of the robotic hand. It also discusses different robotic hands that have been developed before date. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.