Robotic Hand Wirelessly Controlled by User Worn Glove

Abstract

A robotic hand was designed to be remotely controlled by a user worn a glove. The glove used flex sensors to detect the position of the user’s fingers and then sent those positions to the corresponding fingers of the robotic hand via microcontrollers. The microcontrollers regulated the servo motors in order to move the robotic hand into a position mimicking the user. The robotic hand was modeled after the human hand but with only one degree of freedom for each finger, meaning the finger will only move from fully extended to fully curled without movement in any other directions. A wrist was attached to the robotic hand and it also moved with one degree of freedom. The robotic hand was completely 3-D printed out of ABS plastic and a tendon-servo system was used to flex the fingers. Elastic cord was used to extend the fingers back into the outstretched position when the servos relaxed the tendons. Several joint types for the hand were modeled and tested including ball and socket joints and revolute joints. Haptic feedback was included in the design by adding vibrational motors to the glove, and pressure sensors to the robotic hand, allowing hand-to-glove feedback. The hand was designed to be able to hold items ranging from the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball, including irregularly shaped objects within the range commonly held by human hands.