SCHU hand: A novel self-adaptive robot hand with single-column hybrid underactuated grasp

On one hand, traditional coupled fingers have no ability to grasp an object self-adaptively. On the other hand, the grasping process of a traditional self-adaptive underactuated finger is not anthropomorphic and cannot pinch an object by the end phalanges of fingers. In order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional coupled fingers and self-adaptive fingers, this paper proposes a novel single-column hybrid underactuated (SCHU) finger mechanism with coupled and self-adaptive grasp mode. Based on this mechanism, the 2-joint SCHU finger and the SCHU Hand are designed. SCHU Hand has three identical fingers. Each finger has 2 degrees of freedom and only one motor. The theoretical analysis and grasping experiments show that SCHU Hand can efficiently coordinate the coupled mode and the self-adaptive mode, and the hand is capable to ensure both encompassing objects with different sizes and shapes and anthropomorphism of the grasping action.