Design and tests of a three finger hand with 1-DOF articulated fingers

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a new low-cost, easy operation hand having three 1-dof anthropomorphic fingers of a human size. Experimental results on human cylindrical grasping have been used for designing a 1-dof anthropomorphic finger of a human size. The mechanical design of this finger has been mainly focused on a suitable articulated mechanism. This mechanism transmits the power to the phalanxes for a human-like grasping motion and it can be embedded in the body of the finger itself. The design of a three finger hand has been presented as based on the designed finger module. Experimental tests on a built hand prototype have been carried out in order to show the feasibility of the proposed design and validate its operation.