Design of Robotic

Dexterous Hand

Jiting Li, Mileta M. Tomovic

School of Technology
Mechanical Engineering Technology
 Outline

Introduction

Goals of Design

Hand Configuration

Finger Design

Grasping Simulation
 Introduction
What is robotic dexterous hand?
- a special kind of end-effector
- fundamental function: grasping and manipulation
- at least 3 fingers
- at least 9 degree of freedoms
 Introduction
Potential applications
- in extreme or harmful environments
eg. aerospace, underwater, nuclear, military
- service and entertainment
eg. humanoid
 Introduction
Design problems:
- complex procedure of iteration, selection and decision-making
- many activities: analysis, synthesis and integration
- subsystems: motion, sensing and control.

Here we only address the motion subsystem.

 Introduction

We take BH985 dexterous hand as example.

It was developed at Robotics Institute at Beihang
University of P. P. China.
 Goals of Design
Application:
- top level control strategy
- grasp planning algorithm

Specification:
- finger tip normal force: ≥10N
- size: close to human hand size
- active joint velocity: ≥ 1rad/s
- joint motion range: referred to human hand
- weight: ≤1.5kg
 Hand Configuration
DOF allocation
Total:11
-thumb: 3
-index finger: 3
-middle finger: 3
-ring finger: 1
-pinky: 1
 Hand Configuration
Acronyms of phalanges and joints
DP: Distal Phalanges
MP: Middle Phalanges
PP: Proximal Phalanges

DIJ: Distal Interphalangeal Joint

PIJ: Proximal Interphalangeal Joint
MPJ: Metacarpal Phalangeal Joint

TDP: Thumb Distal Phalanx

TPP: Thumb Proximal Phalanx
TM: Thumb Metacarpal

TIJ: Thumb Interphalangeal Joint

TMPJ: Thumb Metacarpal Phlangeal Joint
TMJ: Trapeziometacarpal Joint
 Finger Design
Types of fingers
• thumb
TMJ is represented with joint1&joint2
for description simplification
joint1: independent flexion
joint2: independent abduction
joint2 & joint1: perpendicular
TMPJ & joint2 : parallel
TIJ & TMPJ: 30°angle
motion of TIJ: coupling with TMPJ
 Finger Design
• index & middle finger
MPJ is represented with joint1&joint2
for description simplification
joint1: independent abduction
joint2: independent flexion
joint2 & joint1: perpendicular
DIJ ⁄⁄ PIJ ⁄⁄ joint2
motion of DIJ: coupling with PIJ

• ring & pinky

differences from index finger:
joint1: only passive abduction
DIJ&PIJ: coupling with joint 2
 Finger Design
 Finger length
Equal length for every finger, take index
finger for example.
Referring to human hand,
a1:a2:a3=2:1.35:1
a1 is first determined according to the size of
motor put inside PP.
Length of other phalanges is determined
approximate to the above mentioned proportion.
 Finger Design
In addition, the joint angle range is also
referred to that of the human hand.
See the following table for finger length
and joint angles.

Tab. finger length and joint angle

finger Length/mm Angle/(°)

0~150

a1=70 0~50
thumb
a2=45 0~90
a3=35 0~60
-20~20
the other a1=70 0~90
fingers
a2=45 0~90
a3=35 0~60
 Finger Design
Transmission and structure design
To acquire compact structure and required
finger functions, bevel gears, cable, and
linkage mechanism are used.

We describe next respectively for different

types of fingers.
 Finger Design
• Index finger (middle finger)
metacarpo: fixed on the palm,
accommodating 2 motors
PP: accommodating 1 motor
DP: assembled with 6D fingertip force sensor
 Finger Design
MPJ:
cross shaft: flexion shaft fixed together with abduction shaft
Transmission routes:
motor1-> bevel pinion1-> bevel gear3-> abduction shaft->PP abduction
motor2-> bevel pinion2-> bevel gear4-> bevel gear5-> flexion shaft-> PP flexion
 Finger Design
Calculation of θ1 and θ2:

z1
θ1 = φ1
z3
z1 z4 z
θ2 = φ1 + 2 φ2
z3 z5 z5

where θ1: PP abduction angle

θ2: PP flexion angle
Φ1: rotation angle of gear1
Φ2: rotation angle of gear2
zi: teeth number of each gear  1
 1θ = φ1
Here we let 2z1=2z2=z3=z4=2z5, therefore  2
θ 2 = φ1 + φ2
 Finger Design
Coupling principle of DIJ & PIJ
Transmission routes:
motor3-> bevel pinion6-> bevel gear7-> MP flexion
motor3-> bevel pinion6-> bevel gear8-> roller1-> cable-> roller2->DP flexion
 Finger Design
Solid model of index finger
 Finger Design
•ring finger (pinky)
MPJ: cross shaft
abduction: passive motion, torsion spring
Flexion transmission route:
motor-> bevel gears-> PP flexion-> linkage->
MP flexion-> linkage-> DP flexion
 Finger Design
Coupling design of DIJ & PIJ
Transmission ration between MP&PP: 1:1
Transmission ration between DP&MP: 2:3
Design results are shown in the following table.

l1/mm l2/mm l3/mm l4/mm

Linkage a 70 66 6 6

Linkage b 45 42 8 7

Linkage a Linkage b
 Finger Design
Solid model of ring finger
 Finger Design
•thumb & pulm
similar to that of index finger
difference:
TMPJ shaft & abduction shaft: 30°twist angle
 Finger Design
Solid model of thumb
 Finger Design
Physical prototype
 Grasping Simulation
Purpose
to verify the grasp ability of BH985 dexterous hand

Method
3D Solid modeling: in Solidworks software
Grasp simulation: in ADAMS/VIEW software
Compared with human grasp
 Grasping Simulation
Human grasp classification

cylindrical grasp power grasp chuck grip

hook span grasp lateral pinch

 Grasping Simulation
Simulation results
 Grasping Simulation
Conclusion
• capable of grasping objects with typical shapes, such as
cylinder, sphere and cuboid
• capable of realizing grasp configuration of typical types of grasp
mentioned above
 Reference
1. Yuru Zhang, Jiting Li, Jianfeng Li. Robotic Dexterous Hand: Modeling,
Planning, and Simulation. Mechanical Press, Beijing. 2007
 Acknowledgments
The author wishes to acknowledge the support from the
Society for Manufacturing Engineers - Education Foundation,
SME-EF Grant #5004 for “Curriculum Modules in Product
Lifecycle Management.”