Research on the mechanics of the HIT/DLR Hand II anthropomorphic five-finger dexterous hand

A new anthropomorphic robot with a five-finger dexterous hand-named HIT/DLR Hand II-was developed to make hand appearance and structural functions more anthropomorphic. The hand is composed of an independent palm and five identical modular fingers, and each finger has three degrees of freedom (DOF) and four joints. To meet the mechatronic idea, all actuators, drivers, and electronics were integrated in the fingers and the palm. By using a steel coupling mechanism, the distal phalanx transmission ratio was kept exactly 1:1 over the whole movement range. The packing mechanism which was implemented in the fingers and palm not only reduces the size of whole hand but also makes it more anthropomorphic. The finger size is about one third of the former finger in this innovative design. In additional, the newly designed force/torque and position sensors are well integrated with the hand. It was verified by experiments that the dexterous hand not only met design goals, but also exhibits great grasping capacity.