Development of the NAIST-Hand with Vision-based Tactile Fingertip Sensor

This paper introduces a multifingered robotic hand eNAIST-Handf and a grip force control by slip margin feedback. The developed prototype finger of the NAIST-hand has a new mechanism by which all 3 motors can be placed inside the palm without using wire-driven mechanisms. A method of grip force control is proposed using an incipient slip estimation. A new tactile sensor is designed to active the proposed control method by the NAIST-Hand. This sensor consists of a transparent semispherical gel, an embedded small camera, and a force sensor in order to implement the direct slip margin estimation. The structure and the principle of sensing are described.