Motion Control of Tendon Driven Robotic Fingers Actuated with DC Torque Motors: Analysis and Experiments

This paper deals with the joint position control of a robotic finger designed to test the force feedback performance of an hand controller. The robotic finger is actuated with 3 DC motors located on the base link, which drive the joints by means of bidirectional cable transmissions. The focus of the work is on the analisys of the influence of the elastic cable transmission on the robot dynamics and control. Experimental data are presented to characterize the system behaviour and verify the performance of different control laws. Guidelines for the design of robotic joints actuatated with cables and DC motors are deduced.