The DEXMART Hand: Mechatronic Design and Experimental Evaluation of Synergy-based Control for Human-like Grasping

This paper summarizes recent activities carried out for the development of an innovative anthropomorphic robotic hand, called the DEXMART Hand. The main goal of this research is to face the problems that affect current robotic hands by introducing suitable design solutions aimed at achieving simplification and cost reduction while possibly enhancing robustness and performance. In particular, the design of the DEXMART Hand mechanical structure, the purposely developed actuation system and the sensory apparatus are presented and discussed. The sensors, which are fully integrated within the hand structure, enable precise force as well as displacement control of the phalanges and wrist. Moreover, the lack of suitable and purposely developed control tools that make these devices very difficult to use has been considered. To this end, based on the observation of the human hand behavior during interaction with common day-to-day objects, a simple control strategy that exploits postural synergies has been developed and used for a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the DEXMART Hand in reproducing human like grasping.