An anthropomorphic robotic hand was developed with 23 degree of freedom (DOF) and dexterity to meet the requirements for typing on a standard keyboard. The design was inspired by human hand physiology and consists of 19 servo motors that drive tendons which run from the forearm to the hand. Antagonistic torsional springs and a 4-bar mechanism was used to decrease the number of actuators while maintaining human-like dexterity. The high dexterity also allows other complex tasks such as grasping and object manipulation. In order to achieving complete resemblance to the human hand, servo motors should be replaced with smart actuators that offer advantages in terms of energy density, power consumption, mechanical deformation, response time and noise. This paper will review the advantages and disadvantages of traditional servo motors with respect to commonly studied electro-active polymer based actuators and how they can affect the performance and appearance of humanoid hand.

Date Published: 9 April 2010
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 7642, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2010, 76421W (9 April 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.848716

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7642:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2010
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)