A Study of Feasibility for a Design of a Metamorphic Artificial Hand F. J. Espinosa-Garcia 1 , Giuseppe Carbone 2 , M. Ceccarelli 3(&) , D. Cafolla 2 , M. Arias-Montiel 4 , and E. Lugo-Gonzalez 4 1 Postgraduate Division, Technological University of the Mixteca, Acatlima, 69000 Huajuapan de León, Mexico fjeg_1234@hotmail.com 2 LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics, University of Cassino and South Latium, Via dell’Universita, 03043 Cassino, Italy 3 LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics, University of Cassino and South Latium, Via G. Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy marco.ceccarelli@unicas.it 4 Institute of Electronics and Mechatronics, Technological University of the Mixteca, Acatlima, 69000 Huajuapan de León, Mexico mam@mixteco.utm.mx Abstract. This paper proposes a design concept for a novel robotic hand with a metamorphic palm mechanism. A design inspiration is elaborated from laboratory experiences on human grasping. The proposed design is presented with concepts and kinematic design that is based on linkages. A design model has been imple- mented in SolidWorks environment for a performance evaluation. Results are presented to show the feasibility and ef ficiency of the proposed solution. Keywords: Grasping Á Robotic hands Á Metamorphic mechanism Design Á Analysis 1 Introduction The hand is considered a highly functional component to manipulate and interact with the environment. In general, to different approaches are proposed to develop anthro- pomorphic finger mechanisms namely, complex mechanisms with a reduced number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) and solutions with several DOFs and actuators in combi- nation with simple kinematic mechanisms [1]. Design of robotic hands have focused most attention at the design of fingers while the palm is often neglected. Currently the hands have a palm with a rigid and fixed structure. However, a human hand strongly benefits of its foldable and flexile palm to achieve effective and versatile grasping of objects, as reported for example in [2, 3]. This suggests to investigate the design of a movable palm to improve the versatility and grasping effectiveness of a robotic hand. However, this should not significantly increase the design and operation complexity and should be adaptable to the grasping conditions as function of object size and shape. These goals can be achieved with mechanisms with reduced number of degrees of freedom (DOFs). In addition the implementation of © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 N. A. Aspragathos et al. (Eds.): RAAD 2018, MMS 67, pp. 283–290, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00232-9_29