Fingernail with static and dynamic force sensing

ActiveFingernail The human fingernail turns out to be very important when it comes to picking coins, scratching off stickers, or simply probing surfaces. To endow robots with similar capabilities, in this project, we are developing a sensorized fingernail for mechanical hands, i.e. robotic or prostetic hands, capable of measuring vibratory and static contact forces. High sensitivity combined with robustness for daily use are the key features describing our proposed design.

Although our prototype targets the Shadow Robot Hand, the small size, the natural human-like shape, and the standardized I²C electrical interface will allow it to be used with minimal effort on other robotic or prosthetic hands of typical human hand size.

For more information, please see our Humanoids 2016 paper.