Human Prehension and Dexterous Robot Hands

The human hand is versatile in its interactions with the envi ronment, demonstrating skills that designers of dexterous robot hands would like to emulate. Various postures and features of the human hand combine to provide a great deal of functional ity. In this article, an analysis of human prehensile capability is presented, comparing a symbolic description of prehension to an opposition-space, parameterized framework. By pointing out features of the human hand in prehensile tasks, we hope to offer insights that designers can use for building more versatile robot and prosthetic hands.