Introduction
One of the most striking examples of the gulf between human ingenuity and the designs of nature is the great degree of effort and technical knowledge an engineer needs to mimic even the simplest of natural mechanisms. There is perhaps no better example of this fact than the human hand: an assemblage of skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bone that is capable of remarkably complex and precise motion. Indeed, the evolutionary development of the opposable thumb is what allowed mankind to begin to first create tools and then, some time later, attempt (with great difficulty) to mechanically mimic the very appendages that allowed them to do such a thing in the first place. When looking at the vast majority of robotic hands, one of the first design choices that becomes apparent is the need for many many different actuators to accomplish a product that resembles the real thing. The human hand has 27 degrees of freedom, so it is not hard to see why the amount of actuators can easily become unwieldy when trying to replicate it. In this conundrum, the simplicity of flesh is lost, and the cost can easily become prohibitive. With our project, we aim to explore another path: a robotic hand with minimal actuation.
Problem Statement
In our project, we aim to create a robotic hand that uses as few actuators as possible to grasp a delicate object, let us say an egg, with the proper amount of force to hold it securely without breaking it. In order to do so, we will have to substitute motors and pistons for mechanically connected linkages.