Summary of Mechanism Description and the Arduino Code

Shown above is an initial concept sketch of the overall layout of the design project our group has chosen.

Mechanism: Glove-Controlled "Hand"

The idea involves creating a rough 1:1 scale model of a human hand that is controlled via an Arduino interface and a control glove. The fingers of the hand will be attached by string or thread to several servo motors. By changing the position of the servo motors, the opening and closing motion of the hand can be replicated. The position of the servos will be controlled using flex sensors mounted to a glove which can be worn by a human user. Opening and closing the fingers of the glove will subsequently open and close the fingers of the Arduino hand. This creates a "shadowing" or "copy-cat" effect.

String/cord/thread/wire will also be used on the backside of the hand to maintain an open palm position. It will have to be elastic, so that the hand springs back to an open palm whenever a user is not interfacing with the Arduino hand.

The components of the Arduino hand that must be designed and fabricated are the phalangeal joints, or "knuckles," of the hand that join the individual lengths of a given finger together. The goal is to have it reflect the limitations of human hand movement i.e. they can't bend too far backwards or fold too far inwards on themselves.

Arduino Component:

The Arduino board will take the analog input of the flex sensors and map them to angular position of the servo motors. We would also like to incorporate a set of either IR or RF emitters/receivers for the analog control glove to communicate to the servo motors remotely.