The kinematic structure of a mechanical hand typically resembles the skeleton of a human hand and it is usually designed to emulate a subset of the functions of a human hand. This paper analyzes the structural characteristics associated with the functional requirements of a mechanical hand. Using the mobility criterion and force closure concept, constraint equations for structural synthesis of multi-fingered mechanical hands are derived. A procedure for systematic enumeration of the kinematic structures of mechanical hands is established. An atlas of feasible kinematic structures of multi-fingered hands having a mobility number ranging from 3 to 6 and contact degrees of freedom ranging from 1 to 5 is developed. Further, two theorems concerning the structural characteristics of mechanical hands are presented.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
robots, manipulator kinematics, dexterous manipulators, mechanical contact, closed loop systems, Structural Characteristics, Structural Synthesis, Mobility, Mechanical Hands
Topics:
Degrees of freedom, Kinematics, Mechanical admittance, Mechanical hands, Theorems (Mathematics)
1.
Pham, D. T., and Heginbotham, W. B., 1986, Robot Grippers, IFS (Publications) Ltd, UK.
2.
Skinner
,
F.
,
1975
, “
Designing a Multiple Prehension Manipulator
,”
Mech. Eng. (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng.)
, September, pp.
30
–
37
.
3.
Okada, T., 1979, “Computer Control of Multi-Jointed Finger System,” Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Tokyo, Japan.
4.
Salisbury, J. K., 1982, “Kinematic and Force Analysis of Articulated Hands,” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
5.
Jacobsen
,
S. C.
,
Wood
,
J. E.
,
Knutti
,
D. F.
, and
Biggers
,
K. B.
,
1984
, “
The Utah/MIT Dexterous Hand
,”
Int. J. Robot. Res.
,
3
(
4
), pp.
21
–
50
.
6.
Lin, L. R., and Huang, H. P., 1996, “Mechanism Design of a New Multifingered Robot Hand,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, April 21-27, Minneapolis, MN, pp. 1471–1476.
7.
Salisbury
,
J. K.
, and
Roth
,
B.
,
1983
, “
Kinematic and Force Analysis of Articulated Mechanical Hands
,”
ASME J. Mech., Transm., Autom. Des.
,
105
(
1
), pp.
35
–
41
.
8.
Rouff, C. F., and Salisbury, J. K., 1990, “Multi-Fingered Robotic Hand,” U.S. Patent 4,921,293.
9.
Reuleaux, F., 1963, The Kinematics of Machinery, A. B. W. Kennedy, translator, Dover Publications, New York, NY.
10.
Lakshminarayana, K., 1978, “Mechanics of Form Closure,” ASME, paper no. 78-DET-32.
11.
Hunt, K. H., 1978, Kinematic Geometry of Mechanisms, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
12.
Hunt
,
K. H.
,
1983
, “
Structural Kinematics of In-parallel-Actuated Robot-Arms
,”
ASME J. Mech., Transm., Autom. Des.
,
105
(
4
), pp.
705
–
712
.
13.
Earl
,
C. F.
, and
Rooney
,
J.
,
1983
, “
Some Kinematic Structures for Robot Manipulator Design
,”
ASME J. Mech., Transm., Autom. Des.
,
105
(
1
), pp.
15
–
22
.
14.
Tasi, L. W., 1999, Robot Analysis: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Manipulators, Chap. 3, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.
15.
Somov
,
P.
,
1897
, “
U¨ber Schraubengeschwindigkeiten eines festen Ko¨rpers beiverschiedener Zahl von Stu¨tzflachen
,”
Z. Angew. Math. Phys.
,
42
, pp.
133
–
153
, 161–182.
16.
Rimon, E., and Burdick, J., 1996, “On Force and Form Closure for Multiple Finger Grasps,” Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation pp. 1795–1800.
17.
Yoshikawa, T., 1996, “Passive and Active Closures by Constraining Mechanisms,” Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1477–1484.
18.
Goldman, A. J., and Tucker, A. W., 1956, Polyhedral Convex Cones. In Linear Inequalities and Related Systems, eds. H. W. Kuhn and A. W. Tucker. Princeton University Press.
19.
Vassura, G., and Nerozzi, A., 1980, “A Multi-Finger Gripper,” Proceedings of the 10th ISIR, Milan, Italy, pp. 215–223.
Copyright © 2002
 by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.