Robot Hand Design and Control

Master Thesis Project in Mechatronics

1 Introduction
A lot of different kind of robotic end-effectors have been or are being developed at many institutes all over the world. Usually they are fairly complex and quite expensive. At the Mechatronics Lab we develop a more simple robot hand with reasonable grasping capabilities, allowing it to be a part of a service robot.

As this project has been going on for some time, future work primarily includes further control development and mechanical refinement.

2 Goal
The goal for the next projects will be

1. Establish a baseline through evaluation
This includes further investigation of hysteresis, maximum forces, joint angles, deformation, power consumption

2. Establish operation range
Trying to reach certain configurations will cause the hand to break. The goal is to define some limiting system that will stop the hand from damaging itself, i.e. to create a safety system.

3. Design a system for autonomous control
Bridge the gap between autonomous control in simulation (that works) and the low level force and position control of the actual hand (that also works). The goal is a system capable of fully autonomous grasp control for a certain set of grasps.

4. Redesign the palm
The current palm is to be improvement with respect to aestethics, ease of assembly, and usability. It is also to be investigated if , and in that case how, tactile sensing is be implemented in the palm.

The control environment will be Matlab/Simulink in combination with D-Space. A system is currently up and running and elementary performance has been demonstrated.

3 Formals
No classes are scheduled for this course as it is comprised of an individual project, but at least one special assignment will be given. In addition to committed work and results, proper documentation, a written report, and finally an oral presentation is required to pass the course. The work will be performed at KTH Machine Design. The work does not need to be full time.

* Commisioner: Mechatronics Laboratory, KTH Machine Design
* Supervisor: Johan Tegin
* Contact Person: Johan Tegin or Prof. Jan Wikander
* Course: 4F1011 Examensarbete i Mekatronik, Master Thesis, 20 credits (corresponds to 800 h, 30 ECTS)