Despite the progress since the first attempts of mankind to explore space, it appears that sending man in space remains challenging. While robotic systems are not yet ready to replace human presence, they provide an excellent support for astronauts during maintenance and hazardous tasks. This paper presents the development of a space qualified multi-fingered robotic hand and highlights the most interesting challenges. The design concept, the mechanical structure, the electronics architecture and the control system are presented throughout this overview paper.

Based on under-actuated mechanism and coupling principle, a five-fingered, multi-sensory and biomechatronic prosthetic hand has been designed. The multi-DOF hand comprises 13 joints and is controlled by 3 motors. Actuated by only one motor, the thumb can move along a cone surface which is superior in the appearance. Also driven by one motor and transmitted by springs, the mid finger, the ring finger and the little finger can move simultaneously and envelop objects with complex shape. On the other hand, during the hand designation, the handsome appearance has been considered and its glove prototype has been designed. The hardware system and the sensory system have been developed. Through Bluetooth wireless protocol, the hand can be controlled by voice signal. Furthermore, it can also be controlled by electromyography (EMG) signal like most prosthetic hand in existence. It has been verified by experiments that the hand has strong capability of self-adaptation grasp and can accomplish precise and power grasp