The Adah Project: an Astronaut Dexterous Artificial Hand to Restore the Manipulation Abilities of the Astronaut

Pressurised gloves worn by astronauts during Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA) affect hand manipulation ability. This project is aimed at providing the astronaut with a system intended to enhance his/her limited dexterity in performing manipulation tasks. The ADAH (Astrnonaut Dexterous Artificial Hand) will be controlled by the astronaut with an appropriate HMI (Human/Machine Interface) able to transmit motor commands to the hand, to receive sensory signals, and to stimulate astronaut fingers for providing tactile and force feedback In order to design an artificial hand able to fulfill the requirements, the typical EVA ad the related tools to be manipulated during EVA will be critically analysed. The kinematic structure and the actuator and sensor systems will be designed according to the results of this analysis. The ADAH system will be designed following a biomechatronic approach with the aim of obtaining an intelligent hand able to adapt to different object shapes and weighs. The extra-vehicular safety is improved by the usage of this device. In fact higher dexterity allows to reduce tasks execution time and to increase the quality of the completed tasks.