Towards the design of robot fingers with human-like characteristics

Summary form only given. Human fingers have several physical characteristics which enable the hand to manipulate objects dexterously in a complex environment. The investigation of such characteristics is an important step towards the design and understanding of robot fingers with human-like characteristics. However, these properties have not been sufficiently clarified in literature. In this paper, we focus on an important characteristic of human fingers, viz., their friction properties when in contact with an object. In particular, the directional dependence of friction between a human finger and an object is investigated. Based on the results, we realize a robot fingertip whose characteristics are similar to that of human fingers.