I-Corps: Humanoid Robotic Hand for Use in Fulfillment Centers

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种机器人手，以完成电子商务履行和汽车装配等工业应用中的组件拾取和放置操作。虽然其他抓取解决方案，如吸盘和简单的夹具是商业上可用的和负担得起的，这些解决方案无法抓住在这样的工业应用中发现的全系列产品，阻止这些操作的自动化。所提出的机器人手的商业化可能会导致跨多个行业的拾取和放置操作的自动化，从而降低成本，提高安全性和提高准确性。这个I-Corps项目的基础是驱动技术的发展，这种技术可以复制人类肌肉的能力，其大小与人类手的大小相同。这项技术与其他几项创新相结合，可能会产生一种机器人手，这种机器人手在尺寸，重量，力量，速度和灵活性方面复制了人手的能力。现有的驱动技术无法复制这种尺寸的人类肌肉的能力，导致抓取器和手同时比人手更慢，更弱，更不灵巧。在致动器技术和机制和传动设计以前的基础研究，使这一能力的改进超过现有的技术。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a robotic hand to complete component pick and place operations across industrial applications such as E-commerce fulfillment and automotive assembly. While other gripping solutions such as suction cups and simple grippers are commercially available and affordable, these solutions are unable to grasp the full range of products found in such industrial applications, preventing automation of these operations. Commercialization of the proposed robotic hand may lead to automation of pick and place operations across several industries, resulting in lower costs, improved safety, and increased accuracy. This I-Corps project is based on the development of actuation technologies that can replicate the capabilities of human muscle at the same size of those that articulate the human hand. The proposed technology, in combined with several other innovations, may make it possible to produce a robotic hand that replicates the capabilities of the human hand in size, weight, strength, speed, and dexterity. Existing actuation technologies are unable to replicate the capabilities of human muscle at this size, leading to grippers and hands that are simultaneously slower, weaker, and less dexterous than the human hand. Previous basic research in actuator technologies and mechanism and transmission design enable this improvement in capabilities over existing technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.