Design of an underactuated robot hand with an adduction movement mechanism in a palm

This paper describes design of an underactuated mechanism for a robot hand having an adduction movement mechanism in the palm. It can grasp objects of various shapes. Adding an adduction mechanism to around the thumb is expected to realize to grasp variously shaped objects adaptively by robot hand. Adding an adduction mechanism to around the little finger is expected to improve stability when a robot hand grasps an object. As described in this report, which explains the design of these mechanisms, adduction mechanisms around the thumb and around a little finger are proposed. The effectiveness of these mechanisms for realizing stable grasping of an object was confirmed experimentally.