Artificial hand based on the planetary gear system-Realization of daily utility motion of a hand with minimum actuators-

Abstract

The authors have developed a finger mechanism based on a planetary gear system so far; subsequently they compounded it into an artificial hand with five fingers. It takes an all-in-one design; all of the actuators (total four DC motors) are embedded into a palm, while finger parts do not have any electronic devices for attaining to be inherently safe as an end-effector. The original finger mechanism based on the planetary gear system allows us adaptive synergic motions of three joints of a finger (MP, PIP and DIP) according to shape of gripping objects. Driving tests show that it achieves fundamental motions of a human hand in daily life without any sensory feedback.