The relationship between actuator reduction and controllability for a Robotic Hand

The Anatomically Correct Testbed (ACT) Robotic Hand was carefully designed to capture the biomechanical features of the human hand in order to understand the role of different structures for superior dexterity. While robotic hands have been designed to match a variety of performance, space, and weight constraints, typically the number of actuators is chosen without regard to muscular anatomy. Like the human fingers, each finger in the ACT Hand has 6 - 8 muscles to control 4 - 5 degrees of freedom that are often coupled. The algorithm presented in this paper provides a method for reducing the number of actuators in the design of future biomimetic robots such that human levels of dexterity can be maintained. The results shed light into the evolutionary basis for musculoskeletal complexity in the human hand.