Bio-inspired Design of Sensors and Mechanisms in Humanoid Robotics

"A robot in every home" [B. Gates, 2007] is a compelling forecast when viewed in light of the robot industry s data and projections. Without any doubt the interaction of robots with the real world is the key for the growth of this business, furthermore humanoid robots are expected to be main actors in this "Robotics Revolution". However,although the technologies are maturing, the foreseen levels of interaction are still beyond current capabilities. This work focuses on the field that is currently receiving the most significant efforts in Humanoid Robotics: hand design. Currently, a state-of the-art artificial hand can be compared to an almost totally anesthetized human hand. Such poor sensorization makes even the simplest manipulation task difficult to control. This work presents a novel bio-inspired approach to the design of artificial hands with a smart sensory system already embedded. By identifying key anatomical and physiological features of the human system at a functional level, artificial hands are designed to functionally correspond to at least an important subset of the marvelous system represented by the human hand and its control system.

Autorentext

Giovanni Stellin, PhD: MSc in Mechanical Engineering at University of Padua, PhD in Microsystems Engineering at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and University of Rome Tor Vergata. Project Managet at Telerobot Ocem Srl, Genova.

Klappentext

"A robot in every home" [B. Gates, 2007] is a compelling forecast when viewed in light of the robot industry's data and projections. Without any doubt the interaction of robots with the real world is the key for the growth of this business, furthermore humanoid robots are expected to be main actors in this "Robotics Revolution". However,although the technologies are maturing, the foreseen levels of interaction are still beyond current capabilities. This work focuses on the field that is currently receiving the most significant efforts in Humanoid Robotics: hand design. Currently, a state-of-the-art artificial hand can be compared to an almost totally anesthetized human hand. Such poor sensorization makes even the simplest manipulation task difficult to control. This work presents a novel bio-inspired approach to the design of artificial hands with a smart sensory system already embedded. By identifying key anatomical and physiological features of the human system at a functional level, artificial hands are designed to functionally correspond to at least an important subset of the marvelous system represented by the human hand and its control system.