Design and actuation of humanoid hands for natural grasping

Abstract

Since the first prototype robot “WABOT-1” was created in 1973, how to build humanoid robots has been becoming an active research topic in the robotics area. Hands are one of the most articulated parts of humanoid robots. Natural grasping is a target that most humanoid robotic hands are pursuing. While a lot of research was done in the last 30 years for the simulation of human grasping, existing solutions for robotic hands to simulate the natural grasping of a human hand are still not satisfactory. For instance, it is observed that robotic hands are apparently different from human hands when moving or grasping due to the lack of kinematic ability and suitable motion plan. This thesis describes our research of designing robotic hands for social robots and enabling the robotic hands to function as human hands. The research is divided into four fundamental tasks: (i) designing visually pleasant customized robotic hands, (ii) equipping robotic hands with a human-like actuation mechanism, (iii) developing path planning method to simulate human hand grasping, and (iv) mimicking the complex in-hand manipulations.