KINEMATICS ANALYSIS AND CONTROL OF A THREE:FINGERED METAMORPHIC ROBOT HAND

This paper presents the kinematics analysis of a three fingered metamorphic hand (Metahand) and the Lab View based control system of the robotic hand. In this study, the structure of the Metahand composed of an articulated palm and three fingers is introduced first. With the design parameters of the hybrid structure of the Metahand, analytical modeling of both forward and inverse kinematics is revealed, leading to reachable workspace and trajectory of all three fingertips. In particular, the analytical modeling of inverse kinematics is further verified by a numeric method Following the theoretical investigation, a complete prototype with integrated servomotors and electric circuit for control system are produced. Further, a control system with Lab View software is developed to realize the kinematics based control algorithm. A number of grasping tests are implemented to demonstrate the dexterity of the three fingered Metahand.