The hand is an agency of the brain; it reflects activities of the brain and thereby can be seen as a mirror to the mind. The dexterity of the hand has been investigated widely in developmental psychology and in anthropology. Since robotics launched in the mid-1970s, numerous multi-fingered hands mimicking the human hand have been designed and made in a number of universities and research institutes, in addition to sophisticated prosthetic hands with plural fingers.

Control Theory of Multi-fingered Hands presents a comprehensive insight into the intelligence and dexterity of robotic multi-fingered hands from both the physical and control- theoretic viewpoints. The book:

• focuses on the problem of how to control dexterous movements of fingers interacting with an object in the execution of everyday tasks;
• clarifies what kinds of sensory-motor coordinated signals are necessary and sufficient for realising stable grasping and/or object manipulation, in particular, the synergistic choices of control gains in co-activation signals for finger muscles and tendons crucial in realising secure pinching motions;
• derives a mathematical model of the dynamics of a complicated mechanism of multiple fingers with multiple joints physically interacting; and,
• considers the problem of how to recreate the function of "blind grasping."

Control Theory of Multi-fingered Hands will be a useful reference for postgraduate students and researchers in this field, as well as engineers and roboticists.

This book introduces a new framework for non-linear analysis and control of intelligent machines such as robot arms, mechanical hands, and other advanced mechatronic systems. It clarifies the physical and mathematical prinicples underlying the complicated dynamics of non-linear mechanical systems and deals with the design of controllers that enable sophisticated tasks to be executed. A new concept called `non-linear position-dependent circuits' plays a crucial role, together with passivity analysis as a generalization of the impedance concept. Adaptability and learnability of robot arms and hands as intelligent machines are aLso analysed through visible expressions of their dynamics via corresponding non-linear circuits and generalized impedance concepts. This approach may mark a milestone not only in development of a control theory for advanced mechatronics systems but also in the long path toward understanding the mysteries of motor control in the human central nervous system.

Here you'll find a comprehensive insight into the intelligence and dexterity of robotic multi-fingered hands from both the physical and control-theoretic viewpoints. It focuses on the problem of how to control dexterous movements of fingers interacting with an object in the execution of everyday tasks. It moves on to clarify what kinds of sensory-motor coordinated signals are necessary and sufficient for realizing stable grasping as well as object manipulation.