The LMS hand: force and position controls in the aim of the fine manipulation of objects

The work deals with the development of the control of an articulated mechanical hand with the aim of fine manipulation of objects. This hand possess four fingers with four degrees of freedom. The sixteen joints are actuated using cable transmission and sixteen DC servo actuators. Position and force controls as well as their performances are presented and developed through examples. For the force control, an original method based on learning is developed. This method, using neural networks, allows us estimate the contact force by modeling the behaviour of the elastic transmission made with cables.