WABOT-2: Autonomous robot with dexterous finger-arm--Finger-arm coordination control in keyboard performance

Abstract

Advanced robots will have to not only have 'hard' functions but also have 'soft' functions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to realize 'soft' functions of robots such as dexterity, speediness and intelligence by the development of an anthropomorphic intelligent robot playing keyboard instrument. This paper describes the development of keyboard playing robot WABOT-2(WAseda roBOT-2) with a focus on the mechanisms of arm-and-hand which has 21 degrees of freedom in total, their hierarchically structured control computer system, the information processing method at the high level computer and finger-arm coordination control which realizes the autonomous movement of WABOT-2.