NOVEL BIO-AWARE TECHNOLOGIES AND ALGORITHMS FOR HANDS AND HAPTICS

This thesis focuses on novel algorithms and interfaces, arising from inspection and comprehension of the human nature. In the first part I deal with new mechanical designs and concepts for building and controlling robotic hands. In particular I show how the sensorimotor synergies of the human hand can be useful not only for controlling but also for building robotic hands, suggesting novel design paradigms. Despite the synergy model is useful for designing and controlling robotic hands, it is incomplete to explain the hand behavior during grasp (both for humans and robots). To solve this problem, it is needed to consider compliant articulations introducing the "soft synergies" concept. Consequently, the compliance and the soft synergies lead to the concepts of muscle and mechanical impedance. Thus, in the second part of this thesis I present an observer for estimating the time varying mechanical impedance of a Variable Stiffness Actuator (VSA), i.e. a novel kind of actuator whose performances and capabilities are very close to the human muscles. Another important feature, both for human and robotic hands, is the sense of touch. Indeed in the third and last part of this thesis, I deal with the haptics and haptic interfaces. I show two new haptic devices with their applications on humans. Moreover, I present a tactile sensing algorithm toolbox for computing the contact point of a robotic fingertip interacting with an object.