Anthropomorphic hand control for robotic hand-arm system

The aim of our research is to develop an anthropomorphic five-digit robotic hand and arm with a hand-arm cooperative control system. We define the human hand to compose an active 21 D.O.F. structure, having a 1-D.O.F. flexible palm, on the base of Kapandji´s (1970) physiological study of the human hand. The hand and arm actions are categorized and analyzed to draw the relation in the upper limb movements. A 16 D.O.F robotic hand is designed as a test bed for evaluating the hypothesis and to propose a guide for the mechanical design and synchronous sequential multiple motor control for anthropomorphic hand-arm cooperating movements. The design of the robotic hand, the categorization, and the relative networking characteristic of the upper limb joints are discussed in this paper