Design of tendon-driven robot hand using pneumatic balloon actuators

In recent years, Japanese society has been aging, creating a shortage of young workers. Robots are expected to be useful to perform tasks such as rehabilitation therapy, nursing elderly people, and day-to-day work support for elderly people. Particularly robots that are designed for use in the fields of medical care and welfare must be safe for the human environment because they often come into contact with humans. Furthermore, robots must have dexterity that is similar to that of humans. Under these circumstances, tendon-driven systems of two types using flexible silicone rubber materials have been developed. Moreover we have developed a robot hand using tendon-driven system, which is lightweight, flexibility and has the same degree of freedom as biological human hands. This report describes basic features and mechanisms of two tendon-driven systems. It also reports on the basic structure and driven mechanism of the robot hand that the tendon drive system is installed.