Construction of A Robot Hand System with A Thumb Based on the Concept of Opposition

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This study aims at constructing a robot hand system with a thumb which realizes in a wide motion range finger-or palm-opposition depending on the task given. At the design stage, we determine the hand to have a radially symmetrical configuration for grasping objects in various shapes, while the configuration is inferior in the sense that a human-like robot hand is advantageous in teaching operation because of the similarity. We also considered it important that each finger has a compliant covering to make an areal contact with an object since such a convering improves the opposition performance expecting a wide motion space in which the hand behaves opposition-based grasping. We also designed an advanced tactile sensor, called dynamic tactile sensor (DTS) each element of which has both 3-axis force and slip vibration sensing functions, for localizing an object in the covering and monitoring the areal contact state.In the hardware of the system, we manufactured 7 elements of DTS arranged on the surface of a urethan-based covering, with each element being isolated. Because of the remarkable sensing noise from the DTS,we could not utilize the practical sensor information. However in the software, we studied further on formulating localization algorithms using FEM as well as grasp stability assesment algorithms using a potential function originated in the elastic covering. Finally, we evaluated thier effectiveness and verified those computation in a real-time manner.