Mechanism and computer simulation of a new robot hand for potential use as an artificial hand

A prosthetic hand is essential to provide rehabilitation for individuals who lose a hand. A prosthetic hand serves two purposes: cosmetic and functional. In this paper, a prototype of the artificial hand with an emphasis on the functionality purpose is presented. A new mechanism, the NTU-Hand (NTU-Hand, patent number 107115, Taiwan, R.O.C.), which has 5 fingers with 17 degrees of freedom, has been designed and fabricated in our laboratory. Due to the special design of the mechanism, the hand has an uncoupled configuration in which each finger and joint are all individually driven. The size of the hand is almost the same as a human hand. All actuators, mechanical parts, and sensors are on the hand. The compact design makes it feasible to adapt the hand to the injured wrist. A computer simulation with three-dimensional graphics was also built to evaluate the manipulative range of the artificial hand. From the results of this simulation, the relationship between the hand and the grasped object in a specific viewpoint can be obtained.