Inter-fingercoordinated DC motor driven grasping robotic hand

Abstract

Many robotic hands have individually driven joints, which is both energy inefficient and complicated to control. An alternative method includes employing only one motor to control multiple joints. Investigating humanoid hand movements used in everyday tasks, graduate students working with Professor Asada discovered through Principal Component Analysis that a majority of these motions can be approximated by a grasping motion. Implementing PCA results on a humanoid robotic hand yields an inter-finger coordinated motion in which each of the four fingers closes towards the palm and each individual joint's velocity is linearly proportional to the others. The coordination is achieved through a system of pulleys with different radii. The cables used in conjunction with these pulleys, emulating tendons, will be driven by a DC motor for simple control of a complex hand mechanism. The thumb is excluded from this system as it functions differently from the remaining digits.