"FRCEF: The new friction reduced and coupling enhanced finger for the Awiwi hand"

The combination of tendon driven robotic fingers and variable impedance actuation in the DLR hand arm system brings benefits in robustness and dynamics by enabling energy storage. Since the force measurement and motors are in the forearm the tendon path should have low friction for accurate movements and precise finger control. In this paper an enhanced generation of the Awiwi hand finger design is presented. It reduces the friction in the actuation system about 20 percent and increases the maximum fingertip force about 33 percent. A test finger was designed to evaluate different tendon couplings and to test a magnetic sensor to measure the joint position. In a next step a new finger design for DLR hand arm system has been developed. Finally, the low friction and the robustness are proven using several experiments.