Development of power robot hand with shape adaptability using hydraulic McKibben muscles

We have developed a hydraulic McKibben artificial muscle which realizes great force density approximately ten times larger than the other conventional actuators. In this paper, we have applied this muscle to a power robot hand. The hand finger consists of metal links and the muscles. The contraction of the muscles generates the bending motion of the fingers. This hand has large holding capacity and shape adaptability to grasp objects. The experiments show that maximum holding force of the hand is 5000N. It can hold three types of different shaped objects; cylindrical objects of φ 267mm and φ 165mm in diameter and a square cross section of width 200mm in side. This hand can be applied to various applications, for example rescue robots in disaster area and forestry industry.