A Dexterous Hand for Omnidirectional In-Hand Manipulation: Design, Analysis and Experimental Validation

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Control Systems

Background:

• Traditional dexterous hands struggle with complex manipulation due to control and actuation demands.
• Limitations exist in achieving omnidirectional object manipulation with conventional robotic hands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel dexterous hand design overcoming limitations of traditional hands.
• To enable omnidirectional manipulation of objects with reduced complexity and enhanced agility.

Main Methods:

• The hand features four fingers, each with two mecanum wheels at the fingertips for omnidirectional movement.
• A four-finger coupled mechanism simplifies coordinated motion, resulting in a three-degree-of-freedom hand.
• Kinematic models for omnidirectional manipulation of geometric objects (plate, cuboid, sphere, cylinder) were developed.

Main Results:

• Simulations validated the developed kinematic models.
• Experimental results demonstrated the hand's capability for omnidirectional object manipulation.
• The design allows for unbounded motion of grasped objects without complex finger gaiting.

Conclusions:

• The novel dexterous hand effectively achieves omnidirectional manipulation, reducing operational complexity.
• The coupled mechanism simplifies multi-finger coordination, enhancing manipulative agility.
• The hand's design shows potential for reconfiguration into an omnidirectional mobile robot.