Development of thin robotic hand with a single finger equipped with folding mechanism that facilitates operations at narrow spaces

Abstract

A thin robotic hand with only one finger is presented for grasping operations at narrow spaces. The single robotic finger has the two operation modes. The one is the insertion mode, and the other is the grasping mode. The switching of the operation mode was accomplished by rotating the motor attached on the hand unidirectionally only. Another way for the switching is that a fingertip is passively rotated via a contact with a table or surrounding, followed by active motor rotation to complete the switching. The effectiveness of the developed robotic hand and its control methods are validated by several experiences.