The modular multisensory DLR-HIT-Hand

The paper presents hardware and software architecture of the new developed compact multisensory DLR-HIT hand. The hand has four identical fingers and an extra degree of freedom for palm. In each finger there is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for data collection, brushless DC motors control and communication with palm's FPGA by Point-to-Point Serial Communication (PPSeCo). The kernel of the hardware system is a PCI-based high speed floating-point Digital Signal Processor (DSP) for data processing, and FPGA for high speed (up to 25 Mbps) real-time serial communication with the palm's FPGA. In order to achieve high modularity and reliability of the hand, a fully mechatronic integration and analog signals in situ digitalization philosophy are implemented to minimize the dimension, number of the cables (five cables including power supply) and protect data communication from outside disturbances. Furthermore, according to the hardware structure of the hand, a hierarchical software structure has been established to perform all data processing and the control of the hand. It provides basic API functions and skills to access all hardware resources for data acquisition, computation and tele-operation. With the nice design of the hand's envelop, the hand looks more like humanoid. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.