Turbine

Our experience in developing, building and using dextrous robot hands reaches back to 1993. Our workscope covers all areas from multisensory mechatronic hand design up to control of the hands including telemanipulation, autonomous grasping and manipulation. The experiences gained with the real system result in new requirements for the next generation design steps.

Following our mechatronic design approach the current generation of dextrous robot hands at our lab - DLR Hand II - is a reliable, flexible and powerful multisensory and fully integrated design with a hot pluggable tool retainer and is rated as one of the most advanced and complex artificial hands in the world.

DLR Hand II

In the future, service robots will need mobility, light-weight yet powerful arms and articulated hands. We are convinced that the DLR Hand II - even better in combination with DLR's light weight arm developments - is an important contribution to reach these goals ... (12. October 2004) more ...

Our experience in developing, building and using dextrous robot hands reaches back to 1993. Our workscope covers all areas from multisensory mechatronic hand design up to control of the hands including telemanipulation, autonomous grasping and manipulation. The experiences gained with the real system result in new requirements for the next generation design steps.

Following our mechatronic design approach the current generation of dextrous robot hands at our lab - DLR Hand II - is a reliable, flexible and powerful multisensory and fully integrated design with a hot pluggable tool retainer and is rated as one of the most advanced and complex artificial hands in the world.

DLR Hand II

In the future, service robots will need mobility, light-weight yet powerful arms and articulated hands. We are convinced that the DLR Hand II - even better in combination with DLR's light weight arm developments - is an important contribution to reach these goals ... (12. October 2004) more ...

Data sheet of DLR Hand II

Sensors of a single finger

* 3 joint position sensors: specially designed conductive plastic potentiometers

* 3 joint torque sensors: strain gauge sensors

* 3 motor position/speed sensors: analog Hall sensors with interpolation

* 1 six-dimensional finger tip force torque sensor: strain gauge sensors

* 3 motor temperature sensors: NTCs

* 3 sensors for temperature compensation: integrated sensors

Actuators

Brushless DC motor with Harmonic-Drive and tooth belt gear

Motors: 11(24) mNm, 17,000 rpm for medial joint

24(35) mNm, 6,000 rpm for proximal joint

Gears: Harmonic Drive gears, 1.8 Nm, 6,000 rpm, 100:1 identical for all joints

Tooth belt gear: 1.2:1 in proximal joint

2:1 in medial joint

Degrees of Freedom

* Four identical fingers with four joints and three degrees of freedom the medial and distal joints are directly coupled 1:1. One additional degree of freedom in the palm. In total the hand has 13 degrees of freedom.

Mechanics

* Four identical fingers with four joints and three degrees of freedom each and an aluminum open skeleton structure with injection molded plastic shells

* bevel gear in the base joint

Motion ranges

extension / flexion proximal joint - 55o / 75o

abduction / adduction proximal joint ± 37o

extension / flexion medial and distal joint - 20o / 105o

Link lengths

proximal link 75 mm

medial link 40 mm

distal link 40 mm

Forces/Torques

active force perpendicular to the stretched fingertip: 30 N

Speed

approximately 360o/s for each joint

Weight

a single finger: 375 g

the complete hand: 1800 g

Electronics

* Sensor electronics located directly beside the sensors

* A/D-conversion in each finger link. Serial communication system connecting within the finger to connect the finger links with a minimum number of cables. Serial communication system connecting the fingers to the hand and the hand to any external control computer.

* Number of cables to the hand:

o 4-wire power supply (24 V motor power supply and 50 V, 20 kHz power supply for electronics)

o 8-wire serial communication interface

* Hot pluggable tool change within a few seconds with a customized tool retainer

Control computer

Two-CPU PowerPC VME bus system

Design/Construction of DLR Hand II

In order to achieve the goal of maximum flexibility and performance our philosophy is the miniaturization and complete integration of all components of the hand and also the massive reduction of cabling. As on DLR's Hand I the main aspects in developing the new hand were maximum performance to improve autonomous grasping and fine manipulation possibilities and the use of fully integrated actuators and electronics without a forearm. This is the only possibility to use an articulated hand on different types of robots which are not specially prepared to be used with hands. Hands