ARISTO Hand: Sensing-Driven Distal Hyperextension for Fine-Grained Manipulation
This work addresses the challenge of precisely manipulating thin objects for robotic hands, offering a specific gain in pull-out force and improved force perception for edge contacts.
This paper introduces the ARISTO Hand, a robotic hand designed for fine-grained manipulation of thin objects. It achieves this by integrating active distal hyperextension, which increases pull-out force by 2.76x for objects 1-20 mm thick, and a hybrid fingertip sensing architecture combining a rigid force-torque sensor and a soft capacitive tactile array.
Manipulating thin objects requires precise contact geometry and reliable force perception, yet many anthropomorphic robotic hands lack the mechanical and sensing capabilities needed for such interactions. We present the ARISTO Hand, a tendon-driven robotic hand that integrates active distal hyperextension with a hybrid fingertip-sensing architecture that combines a rigid, nail-mounted force-torque sensor and a soft capacitive tactile array. Active hyperextension enables controlled fingertip engagement beyond the kinematic limits of standard flexion, increasing pull-out force by 2.76x for object thicknesses of 1-20 mm while preserving the nominal grasp capability. The rigid nail-mounted sensor provides reliable force measurements during edge contacts, where the sensitivity of proprioceptive force estimation degrades as the contact geometry approaches kinematic singularities. We validate the proposed architecture through quantitative force characterization and a multi-stage SD card extraction and insertion task. Video and supplementary materials are available at: https://aristohand.github.io