This UB Hand III (University of Bologna Hand) project adresses the development of a new anthropomorphic robot hand.

The overall hand is based on an innovative mechanical architecture, which adopts deformable elements as joint hinges (compliant mechanisms).

This design leads to an endo-skeletal structure particularly suitable to host a distributed sensory equipment and a continuous compliant cover, allowing:

• high level of anthropomorphism
• structural simplification, reliability enhancement and cost reduction.

Furthermore, the proposed solution is very flexible, as it can be adapted to many different end-effector configurations and is not dependent on a particular type of actuation, being compatible with future availability of
any kind of artificial muscles.