Development of robotic hand integrated with SimMechanics 3D animation

In this study, a robotic hand is developed using low cost material to meet the demand for prosthetic hand in Indonesia. It has five actuators utilizing five micro servo motors. The robot consists of three joints for index, middle, ring and little respectively and two joints for the thumb. The robotic hand movement is triggered using electromyography (EMG) sensor. The sensors read the information of muscle activities and send them to the microcontroller to drive the robotic hand. By using the same signal for opening and closing fingers, the three pattern grip is embedded in the robotic grip pattern. The patterns are power grip, hook and OK sign. The 3D CAD model of robotic hand is exported into SimMechanics First Generation. The 3D animation in SimMechanics First Generation is augmented to visualize the 3D virtual hand. Based on the experimental result, the robotic hand successfully shows three patterns grip motion driven by EMG sensor. The present roboctic hand is the initial model of the prosthetic hand.