The Library of Approaches: A systematic mapping of approaches for the mechanical design of tendon-driven, rigid-sequential anthropomorphic robot hands

Abstract

The mechanical design of anthropomorphic robot hands is complex and comprehensive and accessing relevant information remains challenging. Existing reviews provide valuable insights but lack a structured overview of the mechanical design approaches for robot hands. This work addresses this gap by introducing the Library of Approaches (LoA), a collection of mechanical design approaches for tendon-driven, rigid-sequential anthropomorphic robot hands, organized in morphological boxes. In a systematic mapping following the PRISMA guideline, joint-related design approaches are collected and used to synthesize initially undocumented principal solutions (PSs) for fields of interest (FoIs). Literature references are then categorized into the established PSs and assigned to different morphological boxes. To comprehensively capture the state of the art, five separate search strategies are conducted, resulting in the analysis of 147 publications, including 87 robot hands and 110 authors. In total, 92 FoIs and 177 PSs are identified. The main objective is to provide a convenient initial source of references for the early mechanical design of anthropomorphic robot hands, without claim of completeness. The study concludes with a discussion of current limitations and potential future work. • Review of the mechanical design of tendon-driven, rigid-sequential anthropomorphic robot hands. • Systematic mapping in accordance with the PRISMA guideline. • Design approaches are captured in morphological boxes in the form of fields of interest (FoIs) and principal solutions. • Analysis of 87 robot hands resulted in 92 FoIs and 177 principal solutions. • Principal solutions linked to literature, guiding interested reader to relevant references.