Overview

GIFU HAND III  ROBOTIC HAND

The Gifu Hand III is a light, titanium robotic hand for dextrous object manipulation. The Gifu hand is equipped with a thumb and four fingers, with 20 joints and 16 controlled degrees of freedom (DOF) in total. 

 

GIFU HAND III, A TITANIUM ROBOTIC HAND

The predecessors of Gifu Hand III were the well-known robot hands, Gifu Hand and Gifu Hand II. Research and development of the multi-fingered robot hand began in 1996 at the Kawasaki and Mouri Laboratory, at Gifu University in Japan. In 2001, Gifu Hand III received a Technical Innovation award from the Robotic Society of Japan. At the time, the Gifu Hand was about 1.3 times larger than the human hand, and weighed 1.4 kg. Subsequent efforts concentrated on enhancing Gifu Hand's mechanics and control apparatus, as well as reducing its size.

A fusion of advancing technologies and intense research resulted in our newest robot hand, the Gifu Hand III. The hand resembles the human hand in size and shape, as well as in its capacity for manipulation.

The number of finger joints and controlled joints is exactly the same as is found in a human hand. The thumb has all four independently-controlled joints, while the rest of the fingers have four joints with three DOF each. 16 DOF in total makes the Gifu Hand III a very dexterous piece of equipment.

Gifu Hand III is equipped with DC servomotors, built into the finger and palm components of the hand. Use of satellite gearboxes and face-gear in transmission leads to a high level of stiffness and lower backlash rates.

Gifu Hand III is designed in such a way that 6-axis force sensors can be attached to the fingertips. These sensors measure forces at the fingertips during a given task. In addition, a tactile sensor can be attached to the hand in order to detect contact points and measure the forces between the grasped object and the hand itself.

A Windows-compatible library of control functions provided to the user. However, control code for Gifu Hand III is at the discretion of the user themselves.

 

KH HAND S1 ROBOTIC HAND

The KH Hand S1, a kinetic, humanoid robotic hand, has been specifically developed to mimic human hand movements. Its light, plastic, robotic-hand frame requires less energy, and is able to move even faster than a human hand. The KH Hand S1 has 20 joints with 15 controlled degrees of freedom (DOF).

 

KH HAND S1, A KINETIC HUMANOID HAND

 

Some applications, such as the display of finger alphabet signs, and the grasp and manipulation of lighter objects, require a light robotic hand that is also fast and relatively small. To address this issue, the KH Hand S1 has been developed, based on the design concept of the Gifu Hand III. KH Hand's S1 palm and finger components are manufactured from plastic, resulting in a weight of only 1.09 kg in total. Lighter parts, in turn, mean less force is required to produce movement. The bandwidth of velocity control of the robot hand is about 15 Hz, while the bandwidth of a human finger is about 5.5 Hz.

Each fingertip has an equivalent grasping force of 0.86N. Tactile sensors can be mounted on the palm and fingers to detect the location of the contact points and the grasping force. The sensors have the capacity to take measurements from 895 distributed points. 

A Windows-compatible library of control functions provided to the user. However, control code for the KH Hand S1 is at the discretion of the user themselves.