Generating gestures by SMA micro hand of small robot

Abstract

Communication robots should be better as small as an infant for reducing the user's feeling of pressure. And non-verbal communications (such as gestures) are also important for smooth communication between human and robots. In this paper a small robot hand for gesture communication by using SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) is proposed. Each finger is driven by an individual SMA wire. Required specifications of size, operation angles and response times for the robot finger were decided according to the human finger. These required specifications were fulfilled by considering the geometric designs and heating/cooling power control. The five finger hand is also under fabricating. The five finger hand is now under fabrication, and designing how generate and control its gestures.