A multi-fingered hand that can grasp and manipulate a variety of objects is an option for assisting people in their daily lives. However, the range of torque output that can be handled by the multi-fingered hand is very limited compared to the capability of the human hand. In this paper, we introduce a new multi-fingered hand consisting of a dynamic pulley and a linkage mechanism, aiming to achieve a human-like output torque with a human-like size. The proposed multi-fingered hand can achieve a fingertip force of 50N, which is equivalent to that of a human, and at the same time can perform delicate operations such as picking up a coin on a desk. In addition, we realized the stay-on-tab opening task of a can by utilizing fingertip strength.

We propose a concept of reinforceable-muscle humanoid with hyper parallel muscle-tendon systems. By the facilitation of changing the assignment of actuators, we can easily strengthen a specific part of robot body, while changing the arrangement of actuators of current humanoid robots is quite difficult. By developing muscle units in each of which a motor and sensors are integrated, and by adopting musculo-skeletal structure, the rearrangeability of muscles has been realized. This paper describes the concept, prototype design and implementation of the reinforceable muscle humanoid, and the evaluating experiment by a musculo-skeletal humanoid is presented.