Hybrid-Drive Dexterous Hand

A dexterous hand that combines more than one actuation and transmission method within a single hand.

“Hybrid-drive dexterous hand” is common terminology in China's robotics industry for a hand that doesn't rely on a single actuation scheme, but splits the work across joints: for example, some joints are driven directly by tiny motors in the palm, or through a linkage, while others are pulled by tendons from motors in the forearm; some designs also combine motor actuation with passive elastic elements. The goal is to balance several conflicting demands at once: the hand must stay small and light, have many degrees of freedom, produce enough fingertip force, and remain easy to maintain. A purely tendon-driven hand is dexterous but hard to keep tensioned and prone to wear; a purely linkage-driven or fully direct-drive hand is mechanically reliable but struggles to fit motors inside the fingers. Hybrid drive is a compromise, and the exact mix differs by manufacturer, so it's worth asking exactly which transmission each joint uses when evaluating a product.

ExampleDriving finger flexion via tendons pulled by a forearm motor, while driving finger abduction directly with a tiny motor in the palm, is one example of a hybrid-drive scheme.

Also called

Hybrid-Drive Hand

Related

Dexterous Hand · Fully Direct-Drive Dexterous Hand · Tendon-Driven Actuation · Linkage Transmission · Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Actuation (Proximal Actuator Placement)

Sources

Robotic hand - Wikipedia