Robotic hands perform several amazing functions similar to the human hands, thereby offering high flexibility in terms of the tasks performed. However, developing integrated hands without additional actuation parts while maintaining important functions such as human-level dexterity and grasping force is challenging. The actuation parts make it difficult to integrate these hands into existing robotic arms, thus limiting their applicability. Based on a linkage-driven mechanism, an integrated linkage-driven dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand called ILDA hand, which integrates all the components required for actuation and sensing and possesses high dexterity, is developed. It has the following features: 15-degree-of-freedom (20 joints), a fingertip force of 34N, compact size (maximum length: 218 mm) without additional parts, low weight of 1.1 kg, and tactile sensing capabilities. Actual manipulation tasks involving tools used in everyday life are performed with the hand mounted on a commercial robot arm.

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There is an increasing need for manufacturing systems to produce batches in small quantities. Such manufacturing systems are significantly difficult to develop with conventional automation equipment. Recently, several research groups have applied industrial dual-arm robots to cell production lines. A synchronisation method for robots is necessary for the cell production process when robots work in a shared workspace. Conventional automation factories do not need this method because the main control system operates all machines or robots. However, the intended application for the developed robot is in small manufacturing environments which cannot install an expensive main control system. An inexpensive and high-performance method with a simple digital in/out channel using EtherCAT is proposed. The developed method was validated for practical use on a cell production line.

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