Robotic finger mechanism with new anthropomorphic metacarpal joint

We present a robotic finger with a new 2 DOF anthropomorphic metacarpal(MCP) joint mechanism. This mechanism makes it possible to mimic the humanlike finger motions except those of the thumb such as flexion-extension and abduction-adduction. The metacarpal joint mechanism in the proposed robotic finger, called the double active universal joint, generates 2 DOF motion suppressing rolling by the coupled motions of two independent motors. Mechanism design and kinematics are mentioned and the results of basic experiments are reported to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.