A Human Perspective on Robotic Hand Design, Analysis, Control and Beyond

The physical interaction with the environment through grasping is critical for many robotic applications, particularly in dynamic and unstructured settings and when interacting with humans. While human hands exhibit unmatched dexterity, robot end-effectors struggle to match their performance, largely due to challenges in design and the lack of sophisticated sensing and advanced control algorithms. We may draw inspiration from humans to develop better robotic hands that are able to tackle the research challenges of interactive grasping and dexterous manipulation. For robotic hands to predictably and reliably interact with humans, the hand hardware needs to be robust and provide the actuation and sensing to resemble the functionality of human hands. The hand control needs to be versatile and adaptable to cope with unknown objects and changing environmental conditions. For prostheses and exoskeletons, interactive control may also leverage the cognition of a human operator.

This Research Topic aims to collect recent advancements in the design and control of robotic grippers and hands, particularly those inspired by the human hand and designed for interaction with humans.
We highlight recent developments in creating more efficient, lightweight, and multi-functional robotic hands. This includes innovations in underactuated mechanisms, flexible and soft kinematics, and the integration of advanced sensing technologies that provide rich, multimodal feedback for grasping and manipulation.
Moreover, the topic will explore how insights from human grasping strategies can inspire the development of more intuitive and adaptable control and learning algorithms for robotic hands. Such algorithms should be capable of handling a wide range of objects, particularly in unstructured and changing environments.
Additionally, we seek to address the challenges of robotic hand control for effective interaction with and intuitive operation by humans. We focus both on robotic hands for collaborative and assistive applications, as well as prostheses and exoskeletons.
This Research Topic will push the boundaries of current robotic hands’ capability and functionality, making them more versatile and user-friendly in real-world scenarios, particularly in contexts that require close human-robot interaction.

We welcome papers on all topics related to hand design and grasp control inspired by human grasping or tailored to interact with humans, including but not limited to:
• Humanoid hand design
• Actuation strategies and mechanisms
• Sensors for robotic hands
• Grasp planning and control
• Human grasp analysis
• Teleoperation and shared control
• Multi-object grasping
• Bimanual manipulation
• Hand prostheses and exoskeletons
• Benchmarking of human likeness or assistance for a human user
• Learning from demonstration
• Assistive grasping and human-robot cograsping

Both original research articles and reviews are welcome.