Designing Arms and Hands for the Humanoid Robot ROMAN

J. Hirth, K. Berns

K. Mianowski

Robotics Research Lab, Dept. of Computer Sciences

University of Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern, Germany
j_hirth, berns@informatik.uni-kl.de

Institute of Aircraft Engineering and Applied

Mechanics, Warsaw University of Technology
Warsaw, Poland
kmianowski@meil.pw.edu.pl

AbstractThe interest in assistance- and personal robots is

constantly growing. Therefore robots need new, sophisticated
interaction abilities. Humanlike interaction seems to be an
appropriate way to increase the quality of human-robot
communication. Psychologists point out that most of the
human-human interaction is conducted nonverbally. For that
reason, researchers try to enable humanoid robots to realize
nonverbal communication signals. This paper presents a
compact, lightweight, and low-cost arm and hand design, to
enable the generation of gestures as nonverbal interaction
signals to humanoid robots. Human ranges of motion and size
have been investigated and they have been used as guiding
principle for the construction of the arms and hands.
Keywords-component; humanoid robots; arm and hand
design

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recent developments in robotics show a growing interest

in assistance- and personal robots. Application areas for
these robots reach from the care of elderly people, over
nursing robots or household robots, to tour guiding robots or
museum guide robots, as mentioned in [1]. These application
areas lead to completely new requirements for the robot
design, compared to traditional service or industrial robots.
These robots need abilities to interact and behave socially.
They will need some kind of understanding of human
behavior and they will also need some kind of empathy in
order to behave in an appropriate way. One of the first steps
in the development of such a robot is the mechanical
realization of humanlike interaction abilities.
Psychologists did a lot of research on human interaction.
They suggest that more than 50% of the human-human
interaction is conducted nonverbally. In [2] e.g. it is
mentioned that 60% of the communication is nonverbal, in
[3] it even comes to 93%. Considering these findings, a
humanlike interacting robot especially needs the abilities for
nonverbal interaction. Looking to psychology leads to the
information, that facial expressions and gestures are mainly
used for the generation of nonverbal signals, cf. [4]. In [5]
the facial action coding system is explained. This system
provides information about all moveable parts of the human
face that are included in the generation of a certain
expression. A similar system for gestures is described in [6].
In order to use these studies as basis for the development
of an interacting robot a , humanlike robot shape seems to be

Figure 1. The humanoid robot ROMAN of the University of

Kaiserslautern.

necessary. Thereby several requirements for the robot design

can be derived from these psychological findings. It needs
the abilities for:

Facial expressions
Head gestures, like e.g. nodding
Gestures realized by body postures
Arm and hand gestures

World wide researchers focus on the realization of

humanoid robots. Most of them focus on skills like bipedal
walking or object manipulation like e.g. in [7] or [8].
Therefore, not all requirements for the generation of
nonverbal interaction are realized in the construction of these
robots. In the last few years there was a lot of research in
field of so called robot companions. One of these
companions, a miniaturized humanoid robot, is introduced in
[9]. These companions have the abilities for the realization of
all kinds of gestures but most of them are lacking the
possibility for facial expressions. One of the first humanoid

robots fulfilling all requirements for the generation of

nonverbal expressions is WE-4RII of the Takanishi Lab of
the Waseda University in Japan, [10]. Although this robot is
equipped with a rather technical face it is able to present
several emotional expressions. A robot providing a more
humanlike face is presented in [11]. Furthermore, this robot
is able to realize expressive gestures. Although there is a lot
of research going on in this area it is still an open question
how to design a compact, lightweight, and low-cost
humanoid robot, able to realize nonverbal expressions.
The Robotics Research Lab of the University of
Kaiserslautern is developing the robot ROMAN as test
platform for human-robot interaction. Till now this robot is
equipped with an expressive face and an upper body, cf. fig.
1. For that reason, the development of arms and hands
regarding the criteria mentioned above was the goal of the
research work presented here.
This paper is arranged in the following way: At first the
current state of the robot ROMAN is briefly described.
Afterwards the design of the new arms and hands is
discussed. In the next section the sensor- and control system
of ROMAN is introduced. Finally an outlook for future work
and a summary of the paper are given.
II.

Figure 2. Details on the compact linear actuator construction. This

conscruction provides the possibility to add parallel springs to the actuator
and doing this, reduce the required motor torque.

the arm should not exceed 6 kg, otherwise the robot may
harm its human interaction partners. In addition the robot
should be able to fulfill simple manipulation tasks.
Therefore, sensors to measure the force of the grip and to
measure the exact position of the different joints should be
integrated.

CURRENT STATE OF THE ROBOT ROMAN

The robot ROMAN is designed as a test platform for

human-robot interaction. Therefore it provides possibilities
to realize facial expressions, expressive body postures, and
head gestures. For the generation of facial expressions the
robot's face provides 10 DOF (degrees of freedom). They are
realized by small metal plates that can be moved by servomotors. These metal plates are connected to a silicone skin.
That way, humanlike expressions can be generated.
Furthermore the robot is equipped with 3 DOF eyes and 1 DOF
lower jaw. The whole construction of the head including the
eyes is realized out of ABS-plastic (lightweight) and as
actuators model making servo-motors are used (low-costs).
In addition ROMAN is equipped with a 4 DOF neck. Providing
the possibility of generating head gestures like e.g. nodding
or shaking the head. Furthermore, in combination with the
eyes the important gesture of looking at the interaction
partner can be realized. The upper body of ROMAN provides
additional 3 DOF which can be used for the realization of
body posture expressions like e.g. withdrawal to signal fear
or disgust. To reduce the weight of the neck and the upper
body a construction including springs is used, see [12]. That
way the required motor torque can be reduced and smaller
motors can be attached to the robot. An overview of the
current state of the robot ROMAN is depicted in fig. 1.
III.

DESIGN OF ARMS AND HANDS

For the design of arms and hands there exist several

preconditions: Besides approx. humanlike ranges of motion
and size, they should also fulfill the secondary conditions of
lightweight and low-cost. For safety reasons, the weight of

A. Arm Design
To reduce the weight and the costs of the arm, compact
linear actuators, for realizing the arm movement, had been
designed. Using these linear actuators it is possible to reduce
the motor size by combining these actuators with parallel
springs (see a detailed drawing of the actuator in fig. 2). That
way, smaller motors can handle the same payload than
stronger ones. These actuators are used for rotating and
lifting the upper arm, for lifting the forearm, and for the
movement of the wrist. For the rotation around the axis of
the upper arm and the forearm, motors have been located
exactly on a longitudinal axis of upper arm and the forearm,
resp. The first actuator is located horizontally inside the
shoulder of the robot. The actuation system for the second
DOF is realized similarly; the actuator is located nearly
vertically between the joint, mounted by a bearing to the hip
of the robot. The third joint is driven by a simillar motor. In
fig. 3 and 4 the kinematics of the arm as well as the
construction of the arm including all actuators is depicted.
To control the movements of the arm it is important to
get precise information of the current rotation angles of the
different joints. Because of the linear actuators attached to
the arm and the passive movement capabilities of the
actuators (depending on their mounting by bearings) it is
hard to calculate the rotation angles depending on the
encoders attached to the motor axis. For the realization of
this, the different motor controllers would have to
communicate with each other and

(a) Kinematics of the developed arm

(b)
3D
Model
ROMANs arm

of

Figure 3. Thee procedure how to create the functional prototype of the

humanlike arm.

TABLE I.

TECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF THE DEVELOPED ARM

COMPARE TO THE HUMAN ARM. THE INFORMATION ON THE HUMAN ARM
RELIES ON [13] AND[14].
Robot

Human

32 cm

26-38 cm

Forearm (length/diameter)

27 cm

25-27 cm

Upper arm (flexion/hyperextension)

110/0

180/60

Upper arm (abduction/hyperadduction)

110/0

180/75

Upper arm rotation (internal/external)

80/80

90/90

Upper arm (horiz. flexion/horiz. extension)

90/0

135/45

Forearm (flexion/extension)

25/90

90/90

Upper arm (length)

Forearm (pro-/supination)

160

230

Wrist (flexion/extension)

80

160

Wrist (adduction/abduction)

40/40

20/40

Weight (including all motors)

3.75 kg

3-3.5 kg

consider the positions of the other actuators for controlling

the corresponding motor. To avoid this, the arm has been
equipped with absolute position encoders located in the joint
axis. That way the motors can be controlled without
communication between the different controllers. In fig. 3
the developed arm including the position encoders is shown.
Using these construction principles the whole arm
(including the motors located in the robots shoulder and
next to the hip) without hand has a weight of about 3.75 kg.
Furthermore it is able to lift a payload up to 8 kg. All
technical details concerning the arm are depicted in table I.
The big difference for hyperextension, hyperadduction,
and horiz. extension of the upper arm depends on the fact:
That for the realization of these movements humans not just
use the joints of the arm but also the shoulder and the
collarbone.
B. Hand Design
To design the hand, the kinematics of the human hand
have been investigated. Since the human hand is very

Figure 4. The realized arm including all motors and sensors. The 2
additional actuators are used for realization of the movement of the
shoulder. They will be located in ROMAN 's upper body.

(a) Morecki's kinematics of the hand

[15]

(b) Simplified kine- (c) 3D Model of

matics of the human ROMAN's hand
hand

Figure 5. Scheme how to create human-like robot in the base of the theory
of cybernetics.

complex, in [15] a simplified kinematics diagram with 19

DOF plus 3 DOF (wrist) has been introduced, see fig. 5a.
Unfortunately, this version is still very complex and it is hard
to realize such a hand in a compact way including all the
electronics. After some additional investigations the even
more simplified version in fig. 5b has been derived. This
kinematics version provides 15 DOF. To realize a compact
hand including all the actuators, the basic functions of the
finger has been analyzed. Real fingers are driven by elastic
tendons, and the basic function of the hand is to catch 3D
objects. Therefore, the decision was to transmit motions from
small motors with gears located inside the palm by kinematic
coupling between the following phalanges of each finger.
Because of this, the kinematics shown in fig. 5b can be
realized using only 6 motors 2 motors for the thumb and 4
motors for the other fingers.
To get tactile- and force feedback the hand is equipped
with different sensors. For simple tactile feedback switches
are located in the fingertips. For more sophisticated force
feedback absolute position encoders have

TABLE II.

THE TECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF THE DEVELOPED HAND

COMPARED TO THE HUMAN HAND (ROM MEANS RANGE OF MOTION). THE
VALUES FOR THE RANGE OF MOTION OF THE HUMAN HAND RELY ON [14],
THE SIZE IS MEASURE BY HAND.
Thumb (length)
Little finger (length/diameter)
Finger (length/diameter)
Hand (length/height/width)
st
nd
ROM finger (1 and 2 seg.)
ROM finger (last seg.)
ROM thumb (each seg.)
ROM metacarpus
Weight

IV.
Figure 6. Details on the finger construction, including the serial spring for
meassuring the current force of the grip.

Robot
6.8 cm
8.8 cm
9.4 cm
10.5/9.5/2.5 cm
40
40
50
90
375 g

Human
6.8 cm
8.8 cm
9.4 cm
10.5/9.5/2.5 cm
100
70
100
100
300-500 g

SENSOR AND CONTROL ARCHITECTURE

A design goal of the ROMAN project is the integration of

all electronic components inside the robots body. Therefore,
a compact design is necessary.
The sensor system of ROMAN consists of 2 stereo vision
camera systems, 6 microphones, and 21 motor encoders. In
addition 19 absolute position encoders and 10 switches had
been added. The actuator system of the robot consists of 47
different motors including electric- and servo-motors. The
control of the motors is done using a DSP (Motorola 56F803)
connected to a CPLD (Altera EPM 70 128). One DSP-CPLD
unit controls up to two electric and up to eight servo-motors.
Using these control units in combination with the precise
encoder an accurate positioning system can be realized. DSPCPLD units are connected via CAN-bus to an embedded
Linux-PC.

Figure 7. The realized hand including all motors and sensors. The
mentioned elastic rods are realized by applying serial springs.

The 3 DOF eyes include 1 stereo camera system as well as

the motor units for the eye movement (3 servo-motors) and
the 11 servo-motors for the movements of the face are
been attached to the joints connecting the fingers with the
located in the robot's head. They are controlled by 2 DSPs also
palm. By attaching serial springs to the rods moving the
located in the head. These DSPs are also used to control the 4
fingers the current force of the grip can be calculated, see
motors responsible for the movement of the robot's neck.
(1). F describes the force and the spring constant. The
The stereo camera system located in the eyes and the second
function f(x) converts the measured position of the joint to
system attached to the upper body are connected to the
the corresponding displacement of the rod. The target
graphics card of an embedded PC. For sound localization 6
position of the motor (the servo-motor always adjusts to the
microphones are mounted to the upper body. They are
target position) is represented by post and the actual position
connected to the sound card of the embedded PC. The 3
(measured by the encoder) by posa. The difference of these
motors for moving the upper body are controlled by 2 DSPs
positions describes the compression of the spring. Fig. 6
attached to the upper body. The motors and sensors of the
provides a detailed drawing of the developed finger,
arm-hand construction are controlled via 8 DSPs 4 per side.
depicting the spring and the rods.
1 DSP of each side is also located in the robots upper body;
the remaining DSPs are mounted to the arms themselves. Fig.
F = (f(post) - f(posa)).
(1) 8 provides an overview of the hardware system including all
necessary connections to sensors and actuators.
Since the hand is build out of ABS-plastic a very
lightweight construction has been realized. The weight of
this hand construction in total (including motors and sensors)
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
is 375 g. The size of the hand is almost comparable to human
hands. All technical parameters of the developed hand
The paper presented the new designed arms and hands
compared to the human hand are described in table II. In fig.
for the humanoid robot ROMAN. They have been developed
7 the developed hand including motors and sensors is shown.
considering the conditions of being compact (all electronics
should be included), lightweight, and low-cost. Furthermore

the next version the ranges of motion should be increased.

Additionally the arms should be improved by adding
elasticity to reduce the risk of dangerous collisions for
human interaction partners as well as for the robot itself.
Finally psychological experiments should be realized to
determine the quality of gestures realized with the arms and
hands.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We gratefully acknowledge Klaus Tschira Stiftung and
Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung for supporting our research.
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Figure 8. Mechatronics design of the robot ROMAN.

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