2024/04/30 by Jana Egli, Egli, Jana, Benedek Forrai +8 · 5 citations
Engineering · #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Hardware Architecture (cs.AR) #Muscle activation and electromyography studies #Prosthetics and Rehabilitation Robotics #Robotics (cs.RO)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.19448
openalex publication_date 2024/04/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Conventional industrial robots often use two-fingered grippers or suction cups to manipulate objects or interact with the world. Because of their simplified design, they are unable to reproduce the dexterity of human hands when manipulating a wide range of objects. While the control of humanoid hands evolved greatly, hardware platforms still lack capabilities, particularly in tactile sensing and providing soft contact surfaces. In this work, we present a method that equips the skeleton of a tendon-driven humanoid hand with a soft and sensorized tactile skin. Multi-material 3D printing allows us to iteratively approach a cast skin design which preserves the robot's dexterity in terms of range of motion and speed. We demonstrate that a soft skin enables firmer grasps and piezoresistive sensor integration enhances the hand's tactile sensing capabilities.