Design Of A Low Cost Anthropomorphic Robot Hand For Industrial Applications

Autonomous grasping systems using anthropomorphic robotic end effectors have many applications, and the potential of such devices has inspired researchers to develop many types of grasping systems over the past 30 years. Their research has yielded significant advances in end effector dexterity and functionality. However, due to the cost and complexity associated with such devices, their role has been largely confined to that of being research tools in laboratories. Industry, by contrast, has largely opted for simple, single task, devices. This paper presents a novel low cost anthropomorphic robotic end effector, and in particular the design characteristics that make it more applicable to industrial application. The design brief was (i) to be broadly similar to the human hand in terms of size and performance (ii) be low cost (less than (sic)5000 for the system) and (iii) to provide sufficient performance to allow use in industrial applications. Consisting of three fingers and an opposing thumb, the robotic hand developed has a total of 12 automated degrees of freedom. Another 4 degrees of freedom can be set manually. The specific design of the fingers and thumb, together with the drive arrangement utilizing synchronous belts, yields a simplified kinematics solution for the control of movement. The modular nature of the design is extended also to the palm, which can be easily modified to produce different overall work envelopes for the hand. The drive system and grasping strategies are also detailed.