@article {4081,
	title = {Exploring the Role of Palm Concavity and Adaptability in Soft Synergistic Robotic Hands},
	journal = { IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters },
	volume = {5},
	year = {2020},
	month = {17 June 2020},
	pages = {4703 - 4710},
	chapter = {4703},
	abstract = {<p>Robotic hand engineers usually focus on finger capabilities, often disregarding the palm contribution. Inspired by human anatomy, this paper explores the advantages of including a flexible concave palm into the design of a robotic hand actuated by soft synergies. We analyse how the inclusion of an articulated palm improves finger workspace and manipulability. We propose a mechanical design of a modular palm with two elastic rolling-contact palmar joints, that can be integrated on the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, without introducing additional motors. With this prototype, we evaluate experimentally the grasping capabilities of a robotic palm. We compare its performance to that of the same robotic hand with the palm fixed, and to that of a human hand. To assess the effective grasp quality achieved by the three systems, we measure the contact area using paint-transfer patterns in different grasping actions. Preliminary grasping experiments show a closer resemblance of the soft-palm robotic hand to the human hand. Results evidence a higher adaptive capability and a larger involvement of all fingers in grasping.</p>
},
	keywords = {Ellipsoids, Grasping, Indexes, Kinematics, Robots, Shape, Thumb},
	issn = { 2377-3766},
	doi = {10.1109/LRA.2020.3003257},
	url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9119822?source=authoralert},
	author = {Capsi-Morales, Patricia and G. Grioli and C. Piazza and A. Bicchi and M. G. Catalano}
}
