Design of a 3D Printed Humanoid Robotic Hand

Abstract

The article presents the design of an innovative 3D printed humanoid hand. It has five degrees of freedom. The fingers are designed on a modular basis, so that it is possible to manufacture them readily assembled using a 3D printer with fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology. Although each finger is driven by only one motor, it has some passive adaptation to grasped objects thanks to flexible elastic components embedded in its construction. All driving, transmission and hardware elements are located in the palm of the hand, which means that the hand is suitable for a variety of applications in robotics and prosthetics. A working prototype is created and functional experiments are conducted. The functional capabilities of the prototype are compared to other known humanoid hands. Advantages, disadvantages and ideas for improving the hand are discussed.