Development of a Tendon-Driven Dexterous Hand for Fine Manipulation

This paper presents a tendon-driven dexterous hand capable of object manipulation. This dexterous hand is anatomically sound and mimics the musculoskeletal structure of human fingers including the passive mechanism, bone geometry, tendon network. One of the key features of this prosthetic hand is the ability to perform fine finger manipulation motions such as holding a pen with two fingers and rotating the pen. With this feature the user of the prosthesis will be potentially capable of performing a wider range of motions and tasks, which is the key feature missing from current commercially prosthetic hand available today. Some of these tasks can include holding utensils, performing fine manipulation movements in manufacturing settings, as well as many other tasks to greatly assist the user of the prosthesis.