A dexterous and self-adaptive humanoid robot hand: Gesture-changeable under-actuated hand

Abstract

A novel concept called gesture-changeable under-actuated (GCUA) function is proposed to improve the dexterities of traditional under-actuated hands and reduce the control difficulties of dexterous hands. Based on the GCUA function, a new humanoid robot hand, GCUA Hand is designed and manufactured. The GCUA Hand can grasp different objects self-adaptively and change its initial gesture dexterously before contacting objects. The hand has 5 fingers and 15 DOFs, each finger is based on screw-nut transmission, flexible drawstring constraint and belt-pulley under-actuated mechanism to realize GCUA function. The analyses on grasping static forces and grasping stabilities are put forward. The analyses and Experimental results show that the GCUA function is very nice and valid. The hands with the GCUA function can meet the requirements of grasping and operating with lower control and cost, which is the middle road between traditional under-actuated hands and dexterous hands. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.