Development of Anthropomorphic Robot Hand with Tactile Sensor : SKKU Hand II

In this paper, an anthropomorphic robot hand called SKKU Hand II is presented, which has a miniaturized fingertip tactile sensor. The thumb is designed as one part of the palm and provides the mobility of the palm. The fingertip tactile sensor, based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and pressure variable resistor ink, is physically flexible enough to be deformed into any three-dimensional geometry. In order to detect incipient slip, a PVDF strip is arranged along the direction normal to the surface of the finger of the robot hand. Also, a thin flexible sensor to sense the static force as well as the contact location is fabricated into an arrayed type using pressure variable resistor ink. The driving circuits for the SKKU Hand II are embedded in the hand, and each driving circuit communicates with others using CAN protocol. In addition, a tactile sensing system is developed with miniaturized electronic hardwares such as charge amplifier, signal processing unit etc., and it is integrated into the robot hand. The SKKU Hand II is manufactured and feasibility of the hand and the fingertip tactile sensor is validated through preliminary experiments