Mechatronic designs for a robotic hand to explore human body experience and sensory-motor skills: a Delphi study

ABSTRACT

To bridge the gap between users' expectations and technological solutions, a better understanding of human body experience and sensory-motor skills is mandatory. This could pave the way towards a novel generation of robotic hands, which can be successfully employed in everyday life e.g. in prosthetics and assistive robotics. Available robotic hands are still far from matching the requirements of the corresponding experimental and real-world applications, e.g. fast motions might be achieved at the expense of accuracy. Knowledge of the users' sensory-motor skills can guide technical developments, e.g. prosthetic design processes. This paper presents design solutions developed in a Delphi study. Explorative questionnaires are prepared to acquire and elaborate expert opinions to improve the design of previously developed robotic anthropomorphic hands. By gathering and fusing expert opinions, novel robotic hand and wrist concepts specifically optimized regarding body experience and sensory-motor skill research are developed. In three rounds, experts with experience in robotic hand design and/or control analyze, develop, and rank solutions for mechanisms, actuators, and control , which result in overall design concepts. The technical concepts and implications resulting from the study are discussed considering psychological and biomechanical aspects.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Robotic hand design
• human body experience
• sensory-motor skills
• expert study
• assistive robotics

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participating experts for sharing their experiences and creative ideas. P. Beckerle coordinated the writing process and the expert study. M. Bianchi, G. Salvietti, and C. Castellini contributed equally to participant acquisition, study design, evaluation, and paper preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Philipp Beckerle  http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-6029

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) projects ‘Users’ Body Experience and Human-Machine Interfaces in (Assistive) Robotics' [number BE 5729/3] and ‘TACT-HAND: Improving control of prosthetic hands using tactile sensors and realistic machine learning’ [number CA 1389/1]. This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [grant agreement number 688857] (SoftPro). The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors. The European Commission or its services cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Notes on contributors

Philipp Beckerle

Philipp Beckerle received his Dr.-Ing. in mechatronics from Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Germany, in 2014. He is currently chief engineer and deputy head of the Institute for Mechatronic Systems at TU Darmstadt and heads ‘Human-Mechatronics Synergy’ research. As a TU Darmstadt ‘Athene Young Investigator’ he obtained the right to supervise doctoral students in 2017. His dissertation was awarded with the ‘Manfred-Hirschvogel Award 2015’ and the ‘MINT Excellence PhD thesis award 2015’ and he is recipient of the ‘Eugen-Hartmann Award 2017’. He was visiting researcher at Robotics & Multibody Mechanics research group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Interactive Robotics Lab and Human-Oriented Robotics and Control Lab, Arizona State University, as well as Human Centered Robotics Group, University of Siena. Dr. Beckerle takes over review and editorial responsibilities for various international journals and conferences. His main research topics are human–machine-centered design, elastic actuation, wearable robotics control, and human–computer/robot interaction.

Matteo Bianchi

Matteo Bianchi received the BS and MS degrees (cum laude) in biomedical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in automation, robotics and bio-engineering from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 2004, 2007, and 2012, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Information Engineering and the Research Center ‘Enrico Piaggio’, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, and a Research Affiliate with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. He is the local Principal Investigator with the University of Pisa for the EU H2020 funded Project SOFTPRO. He is an author of contributions to international conferences and journals. He is a reviewer and member of the editorial board and organizing committee of international journals and conferences. He is a Co-editor of the book Human and Robot Hands (Springer, 2016). His research interests include haptic interface design and control; medical and assistive robotics; advanced human-robot interaction; human and robotic hands: sensing and control; and human-inspired control for soft robots. Prof. Bianchi was a recipient of several international awards including the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Haptics Symposium 2016. He is a Co-Chair of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robotic Hands, Grasping and Manipulation, and vice Chair for Information Dissemination of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Haptics.

Claudio Castellini

Claudio Castellini received a Laurea in Biomedical Engineerings in 1998 from the University of Genoa, Italy and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence in 2005 from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a senior researcher and group leader at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Oberpfaffenhofen, concentrating on assistive / rehabilitation robotics and human–machine interfaces for the disabled. He is currently (co)author of some 90 papers appeared in international journals, books and peer-reviewed conferences.

Gionata Salvietti

Gionata Salvietti received the MS degree in Robotics and Automation and the Ph.D. degree in Information Engineering from the University of Siena, Siena, Italy, in 2009 and 2012, respectively. He was a post-doc researcher with the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia from 2012 to 2015. He is currently Assistant Professor at Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena and Research Affiliate at Dept. of Advanced Robotics at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. From 2016, Associate Editor IEEE Robotics and Automation letters. His research interests are telemanipulation, robotic and human grasping, haptics and assistive devices.