The AMADEUS dextrous subsea hand: Design, modeling, and sensor processing

This paper describes the mechanical design, finger modeling, and sensor sig nal processing for a dextrous subsea robot hand incorporating force and sli p contact sensing, The hand uses a fluid-filled tentacle for each finger, w hich has inherent passive compliance, and no moving parts, Force sensing us es strain gauges mounted in the fingertip, potted within a silicon elastome r, Slip sensing uses a piezoelectric strip to detect vibration, embedded 1 mm below the elastomer surface. Static models of anger motion are presented and validated based on bending moments and hydraulic pressure. The design of a stochastic estimator is also described, for sensor fusion of contact f orce magnitude and direction data, obtained using redundant strain gauges i n the fingertip. Finally, linear dynamic models of the finger dynamics in c ontact with a rigid surface are obtained using least squares and recursive least squares parameter estimation, as a precursor to closed-loop force con trol during grasping.