Low level control of the Utah/M.I.T. dextrous hand

The University of Utah Center for Engineering Design (CED) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) are developing a tendon operated multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) dextrous robotic hand for use as a research tool. The goal of the project is to design and fabricate a high performance hand which includes the operational flexibility to investigate issues related to machine based manipulation (MBM). This document will concentrate on issues related to the present implementation of the lowest level servos for the hand. The paper will first discuss the current configuration of the Utah/M.I.T. Hand including the actuation system and the internal sensor systems. It will then focus on the hardware used to implement the controller and the exact form of the control equations. Finally, future work and directions of the control aspects of the project will be discussed.