ARoboticHandM~~withRotatingFingertipsand
Motor-Tendon Actuation
Gongliang Guo, William A. Gruver and Xikang Qian
Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0108
This paper concerns a new design for a
multifingered, dextrous, robotic hand. Based on
an analysis of the UtahlMIT hand, the
Stanford IJPL hand,and the Belgrade I USC hand,
four improvements are proposed for the
mechanism, tendon-operated actuation, and
functionality. We describe a new three-fingered,
n i n e - d e g r e e - o f- f r e e d o m rob o t i c h a n d
mechanism having nine DC-servomotors,
tendon actuation, rotating fingertips, and the
capability for assembly operations. The tendon
and transmission subsystems of this robotic
hand are described. The specification of the
mechanism and applications of this mechanical
device are discussed and summarized.
L Introduction
Dextrous manipulation is needed for industrial
assembly, prosthetic hands, and the study of
human movement. The utility of multifingered
robot hands to perform fine manipulation and
grasping tasks is widely recognized throughout
the world 11, 21. There are numerous examples in
which multifingered robot hands can accomplish
manufacturing functions and complex assembly
tasks, achieve multiple robotic hand cooperation
with futureless assembly, operate in hazardous
environments, explore remote locations, and
perform other important functions if the
technologies of mechanism, sensing, and
control were available [3]. Recently, there has
been renewed interest in multifingered robot
hands E4-131. A multifingered robot hand
typically has three or more multi-degree-of-
freedom (DOF) fingers mounted on a rigid palm
[2, 4-61, intended for attachment to the wrist of a
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robot arm. The principal component of a
multifingered robot hand i s the finger
mechanism [U. Examples of these are a 3-DOF
finger mechanism actuated by four motors [21, a
4-DOF finger mechanism actuated by eight
pneumatic cylinders [41, and a single-DOF
finger mechanism with selfadaptability and
actuated by one motor [5,9,121. Based on a study
of commercially available robot hands, the
authors have designed a 9-DOF robot hand where
the finger mechanism has three joints and each
joint uses two-way tendon-actuation by one
motor. In this paper, we analyze the mechanism
and mechanical structure of this multifingered
hand. We describe the design for a new
multifingered hand composed of the new finger
mechanism.
II.Mechanisms and Structures
f;orDextrousHands
Experimental robot hands have been developed
in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan as
research tools. While significant progress has
been made in mechanism design, mechanical
structure, low level control, and integration, the
potential of dextrous mechanical hands has not
been realized. In this section, we discuss the
mechanisms a n d s t r u c t u r e s of t h r e e
commercially available multifingered hands.
2.1 Stanford 1JPL Dextrous Hand
The design of the StanfordJPL dextrous hand
w a s motivated by anthropomorphic
considerations as well as kinematic and control
issues. As shown in Fig. 1, the StanfordJPL
dextrous hand is composed of three 3-DOF
ISSN#0-7803-0233-8/91 $1.Om1991 IEEE
fingers (two fingers and one thumb) and twelve
unisense actuators (motors and tension cables)
where each finger mechanism has three joints:
two parallel axis joints to provide curling action
and the third proximal joint, perpendicular to the
other axes, provides side-to-side motion.
Because of the tendon actuation, N+l unisense
actuators are needed to control N bidirectional
degrees of freedom (finger joints). The finger
mechanism of the StanfordJPL hand has a
tendon configuration using four motors and
cables with tension sensors. By applying
appropriate combinations of four cable tensions,
arbitrary torques may be exerted about three joint
axes. The motion of each joint, therefore, can be
controlled by co-actuation (actuation coupling) of
the four motors in a finger. Due to the presence of
couplings within the actuating system, i t is
difficult to maintain calibration of the hand
using the tension of four cables of each finger. In
addition, the control system of the StanfordJPL
hand is complex because of the large number of
motors and actuations coupling.
2.2 UtahI MIT Dextrous Hand
The Utah/MIT dextrous hand is one of the most
ambitious efforts to develop an anthropomorphic
robotic hand. As shown in Fig. 2, the Utah/MIT
dextrous hand has three 4-DOF fingers and one
4-DOF thumb, with 32 independent tendons and
actuators (pneumatic cylinders). Each finger
has four joints: three parallel axis joints to
provide motion of the flexiordextension, and an
additional joint, perpendicular to the other axes,
provides radialhlnar motion.
Since the bidirectional motion of each finger
joint can be generally achieved by two pneumatic
actuators in an antagonist pair configuration,
the finger mechanism of the Utah/MIT dextrous
hand is actuated by tendons and eight pneumatic
actuators. It is very difficult to achieve
r a d i a h l n a r motion when all six pneumatic
cylinders and tendons (six cables), used to
actuate flexion/extensions, are stationary and
unflexible. This results in interference between
the radialhlnar and flexiordextension motions
of the finger. To achieve radialhlnar motion,
the cables used for flexion/extension will be
lengthened (or shortened) and must be
compensated by appropriate displacements of the
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corresponding pneumatic cylinders. The
Utah/MIT dextrous hand, consequently, has two
major disadvantages: (i) there are a large
number of actuators resulting in complex
control; and (ii) r a d i a h l n a r motion affects the
flexiordextensions a t the same finger.
2.3 Belgrade 1USC Dextrous Hand
The Belgrade/USC dextrous hand is an
anthropomorphic end effector for robot
manipulators [51. As shown in Fig. 3, this hand
has five fingers and four motors: two for the
fingers (one for each finger pair) and two for the
thumb (one for rotation and one for flexion).
Each finger has three parallel axis joints with a
selfadaptability feature and one degree of
freedom.
This design is based on the following principle of
selfadaptability. When one finger pad contacts a
grasped object, the other fingers continue to close
until the pressure on all the finger pads is
approximately equal ClZ]. The BelgradeLJSC
hand, therefore, combines motions of finger
segments to achieve local autonomy during
grasping, rather than maximizing dexterity.
The hand only provides simple grasping
functions, not manipulation and assembly
functionality.
Besides these three dextrous hands there are also
other devices, that have been developed in
research laboratories [l, 8,9, 121.
III. Dextrous Hand Mechanism
Currently available dextrous hands have four
areas which need improvement: (i) assembly
functionality, (ii) cable interference, (iii)
number of actuators, and (iv) actuation coupling.
In the following section, we introduce a new
dextrous hand design that provides these
improvements and we describe its functionality.
3.1 Mechanical Structure
and Assembly Functionality
A three-finger, 9-DOF dextrous hand has been
developed as shown in Fig. 4. The finger
mechanism has three joints actuated by three
motors and four tension cables. Each joint uses
two-way tendon-operated actuation by a single
motor. The finger mechanism has two parallel
axis joints to provide curling action. A third
proximal joint, perpendicular to the other axes,
provides side-to-side motion. The finger
mechanism also has a rotating fingertip that can
be used to turn grasped objects in mechanical
assembly tasks.
As shown in Fig. 5, a peg-in-hole operation can
be implemented as follows:
Step 1: Grasp and manipulate the peg using the
three fingertips until it contacts the
chamfer of the hole;
Step 2: Guide the peg into the hole using the
force of the first fingertip and the frictional
thrust of the two other fmgertips produced by
their rotation.
Similarly, a nut-on-screw assembly task
requires
Step 1:Grasp and manipulate the nut with three
fingertips until it contacts the screw;
Step 2:Rotate and turn the nut onto the screw, as
shown in Fig. 6,using the three fingertips.
3.2 Tendon and Transmission Subsystem of
the new Finger Mechanism
In the Utah/MIT hand, a N-degree-of-freedom
finger is actuated by 2N antagonist pairs of
tendons (2N independent tendons and
actuators). Alternatively, each finger of the
StanfordlJPL hand is actuated by a tendon
scheme using N+l cables with tension sensors
(N+1 independent tendons with tension sensors
and actuators). In this paper, we introduce a new
method for two-way tendon-operated actuation
with one motor for each joint so that an N-DOF
finger requires only N independent actuators.
The tendon subsystem for the two parallel axis,
curling, joints has four tendons configured as
antagonist pairs as shown in Fig. 7. The distal
ends of tendons 25 and 26 are fixed to the distal
joint 35. Their proximal ends via pulleys 34,33,
29 and 28 are fixed to the actuating wheel 24.The
distal ends of tendons 32 and 44 are fixed to the
middle joint 40.Their proximal ends via pulleys
42,30and 27 are fixed to the actuating wheel 10.
The proximal joint is configured with two simple
antagonist tendons 13 and 17 via paired cables 25
and 26, and 32 and 44.The distal ends of tendons
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13 and 17 are fixed to the slide blocks 12 and 18.
Their proximal ends are fixed to the actuating
wheel 16.
The transmission subsystem for the finger
mechanism has four elements: (i) Distal joint 35
is actuated by a tendon scheme using paired
cables 25 and 26 and its motion is produced by
motor 1 via worm 23, worm gear 20, and
actuating wheel 24. (ii) Middle joint 40 is driven
by tendons 32 and 44 with translational motion
achieved by motor 2 and worm 15,worm gear 11,
and actuating wheel 10. (iii) The radiayulnar
motion of proximal joint 43 is attained by the
movements of paired cables 25 and 26, and 32 and
44. Cables 25 and 26 are actuated by the
translational motion of slide block 18. The
motion of slide block 18 over support 22 drives
worm 23 over motoi axle 19 via worm gear 20.
Similarly, the motion of cables 32 and 44 is
achieved by the translational motion of slide
block 12 over support 22,which causes worm 15 to
move along motor axle 14 by means of worm gear
11.Slide blocks 12 and 18 are actuated by motor 3
via worm 5,worm gear 4 and actuating wheel 16
when clutch 6 is on and clutch 9 is "off'. (iv)
Fingertip rotation is achieved by motor 3 via
gears 8 and 7,flexible shaft 45, gears 39 and 36
when clutch 9 is "on" and clutch 6 is "off. The
compound motion of the finger mechanism is
achieved by a combination of three motors and
two clutches.
IV.Commentsand Conclusions
In summary, the new multifingered hand
described in this paper has the following
features:
(i) The hand has three fingers and nine degree of
freedom. Each finger mechanism has three
joints actuated by three motors. Each joint uses
two-way tendon-operated actuation with one
motor. The hand possesses grasping and fine
manipulation capabilities.
(ii) Each finger mechanism has a rotating
fingertip to turn grasped objects in assembly
tasks.
(iii) The finger mechanism has N degrees of
freedom and requires only N independent
 motors thereby reducing the number of
actuators as compared with previous designs.
(iv) Side-to-side motion of the proximal joint is
achieved by translational motion of slide
blocks 12 and 18. This motion is very easy to
obtain because the tensions of cables 25 and 26
are always equal, and the tensions of cables 32
and 44 are always equal (uncoupling
actuation).
(v) Because side-to-side motion of the finger
mechanism causes lengthening (or
shortening) of cables 25 and 26, and 32 and 44,
the changes of these cable lengths can be
compensated by forward (or backward)
motions of slide blocks 18 and 12, thereby
avoiding interference of the cables.
(vi) The weight and volume of a dextrous hand
built using the finger mechanism are
minimized by the design which locates the
actuators on the forearm and uses tendons.
The mechanical structure and actuation system
of this dextrous hand is useful in mechanical
assembly. Typically, robotic hands with tendon-
operated actuation require a greater number of
actuators than degrees of freedom, whereas the
multifingered hand built with the mechanism
and structure proposed in this paper requires the
same number of motors as degrees of freedom.
For this reason, drive control hardware and
software are simpler to implement.
A prototype mechanism based on this design has
been built at the Center for Robotics and
Manufacturing Systems of the University of
Kentucky. Experimental results will be
described in a future paper.
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"
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 Jmnted M e 2

Jolnted Axle 1

Fig. 1 Structure of the StanfordlJPL Hand

lo

Fig. 2 Structure of the U W I T Hand

4
1. Rotating Fingertip
2. ThreeJointed Finger
3. Hand Palm
4. Nine-ActuatedSystem
5. Grasped Object

Fig. 4 Conceptual Structure of the UK Hand

Fig. 3 Structure of the BelgradaSC Hand
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 Fig. 5 Peg-in-Hole Assembly Fig. 6 Nut-in-Screw Assembly

1,293 Motor
4,11,20 Worm Gear
5,15,23 Worm
699 Clutch
7,8,%,39
10,16,24
12,18
13,17,25,26,32,44
14,19
21
22 \
’ 2

Routed Pulley
Jointed Axle
Distal Joint
Fingertip
Middle Joint
Proximal Joint
Flexible Shaft

Fig. 7 Finger Mechanism of the UK Hand

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