The compliance of robotic hands – from functionality to mechanism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the physical structure and the control mechanism of human motor nervous system to the robotic system in a tentative manner to improve the compliance/flexibility/versatility of the robot. Design/methodology/approach – A brief review is focused on the concept of compliance, the compliance-based methods and the application of some compliance-based devices. Combined with the research on the physical structure and the control mechanism of human motor nervous system, a new drive structure and control method is proposed. Findings – Introducing the physical structure and the control mechanism of human motor nervous system can improve the compliance/flexibility/versatility of the robot, without bringing in more complexity or inefficiency to the system, which helps in the assembly automation tasks. Originality/value – The proposed drive structure and control method are useful to build up a novel, low-cost robotic assembly automation system, which is easy to interact and cooperate with humans.