Development of Dual-Arm Robot with Multi-Fingered Hands

In this paper, we describe the development of a dual-arm robot with multi-fingered hands and demonstrate some behaviors of manipulating objects with its hands. In the former part of the paper, the design of the robot is presented. The hands of the robot have five fingers with a total of eleven degrees of freedom. The hand is designed considering the dexterity and the size suited for human tools and has tactile sensors equipped on the fingertips of thumb, index finger and middle finger. In the latter part of the paper, experimental demonstration of "chadou" and "cleaning up dishes" behaviors are described. Experimental results show the performance of the robot to manipulate tools of various shapes