Parallel force/position control of a novel biomechatronic hand prosthesis

Commercially available prosthetic hands are basically simple grippers having one or two degrees of freedom, which barely restore the capability of the thumb-index pinch. The development of novel prosthetic hands based on a "biomechatronic" design attempts at increasing the dexterity while keeping the same dimension and weight of a traditional prosthetic device. This paper concerns with the study of a particular kind of grasp task performed by the hand: a cylindrical grasp of a cylindrical object. On the basis of a previous grasp analysis, a parallel force/position control is developed that ensures stability of the grasp. Simulation results are discussed to validate the proposed controller in a number of case studies.