Sensorless In-Hand Manipulation by An Underactuated Robot Hand
Diego Ospina, Alejandro Ramirez‐Serrano
Abstract
Abstract The limited dexterity that existing hand prostheses provide to users contrasts with the manipulation abilities exhibited by state-of-the-art robot hands. This paper presents an underactuated robot hand with in-hand manipulation capabilities to demonstrate the use of underactuation in the development of effective hand replacements. This paper describes a specific underactuated hand architecture, representative of many existing underactuated hand prototypes. First, the hand is modeled and its ability to manipulate objects of different geometries is analyzed. Second, a manipulation strategy suitable for prosthetic applications is proposed. The strategy enables the hand to manipulate objects in-hand without any a priori information of their geometry or physical properties. Finally, experimental tests conducted to validate the theoretical results are presented.