How to make homemade robotic hand


I made my first animatronic hand when I was about 10 years old using stuff I found around the house. Now I want to share with you how to easily make your own at home! This hand is made from readily available materials and is perfect for your Halloween haunted house, scary pranks, as a movie prop or just good old fashion fun.

It also serves as a good starting point for further work that might include the use of servos, remote controlling and more advanced animatronics. There's a few videos at the end of this instructable that shows the building process and some of the movement of the hand.

First off, draw an outline of your hand on a sheet of paper. Mark off the joints of each finger including your knuckles.

If you're lazy, just print out the last picture: For this hand I used a plastic tubing that electricians use when they route wires trough walls. It is easy to cut and have a nice "spring" to it. Almost any kind of tubing will do so just take whatever you can get. Cut the tube at a length equal to that of the distance from your finger to your wrist. Do this for how to make homemade robotic hand fingers. From the template, mark off the joints and then cut a V-shape in the tube at each joint.

Make sure the to check how to make homemade robotic hand angle of the bend so that it closely matches your fingers. Get your string and insert it into the tube.

I used nylon string so that it doesn't frizz. Use a few feet how to make homemade robotic hand each finger as you can always cut it later. Tie a few knots at the end as depicted and secure it all with some tape to hold it all together. At the other how to make homemade robotic hand wrist-sidepull and tape the string. This makes the next step much easier!

Make use of those old CD-covers that clutters your desk and snap off a piece of plastic. Cut it to size and power up the glue gun. Glue the fingers to the plastic strip just below the knuckle joints. Make sure the right fingers are in the right place! Depending on the diameter of the tubing, you might want to tape the fingers before gluing the thumb in place.

It might seem a bit tricky placing the thumb, but study your hand and you'll work it out. Use a big blob of glue and hold it steady until it cools. Remove the tape from the wrist-end of the tubes and insert them in a foot or so of tubing.

To stiffen things up a bit, attack that old CD-cover again and snip out one or two pieces as per picture. Glue it all together leaving an inch for the wires. Some extra tape might also be in place here. To get things in motion we need to make a bracket of some kind.

A plastic clothes hanger is about to be hacked. Make a square by taping and gluing the pieces together. Secure it how to make homemade robotic hand the end of the tube by using even more glue and tape.

Tie loops for all fingers. The thumb is a bit tricky to control at first but with time you'll get the hang of it. To add a more human touch, I glued some cell foam to the tips of the fingers and palm. This helps if you plan to use a glove for further realism. This is where your creativity should take over: Here's a quick video I made of another hand.

I used my stiff MC glove so the movement doesn't really show on that one. This is a low quality video How to make homemade robotic hand made during testing. I will replace it with a better one later!

Simple Animatronics robotic hand I made my first animatronic hand when I was about 10 years old using stuff I found around the house. Here's one; Step 2: Making the template First off, draw an outline of your hand on a sheet of paper. Creating some fingers For this hand I used a plastic tubing that electricians use when they route wires trough walls.

Mounting the fingers Get your string and insert it into the tube. Mounting the fingers -continued Make use of those old CD-covers that clutters your desk and snap off a piece of plastic.

Thumbs up Depending on the diameter of the how to make homemade robotic hand, you might want to tape the fingers before gluing the thumb in place. Wrist Remove the tape from the wrist-end of the tubes and insert them in a foot or so of tubing. Controlling the beast To get things in motion we need to make how to make homemade robotic hand bracket of some kind. The next step is really not necessary but more depending on the usage.

Bringing it to life To add a more human touch, I glued some cell foam to the tips of the fingers and palm. Thanks for viewing my Instructable. Now, go and scare someone: Original content provided by:

A robotic arm is a type of mechanical armusually programmablewith similar functions to a human arm ; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex how to make homemade robotic hand.

The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion such as how to make homemade robotic hand an articulated robot or translational linear displacement. The terminus of the kinematic chain of the how to make homemade robotic hand is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand. The end effector, or robotic hand, can be designed to perform any desired task such as welding, gripping, spinning etc.

For example, robot arms in automotive assembly lines perform a variety of tasks such as welding and parts rotation and placement during assembly. In some circumstances, close emulation of the human hand is desired, as in robots designed to conduct bomb disarmament and disposal. These robotic arms have been used to perform a variety of tasks such as inspection of how to make homemade robotic hand Space Shuttle using a specially deployed boom with cameras and sensors attached at the end effector, and also satellite deployment and retrieval manoeuvres from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.

The Curiosity rover on the planet Mars also uses a robotic arm. In the decade of the availability of low-cost robotic arms increased substantially.

Although such robotic arms are mostly marketed as hobby or educational devices, applications in laboratory automation have been proposed, like their use as autosamplers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 29 July Retrieved 21 June Journal of Laboratory Automation: Tracks Walking Hexapod Climbing Self-balancing unicycle.

Technological unemployment Fictional robots. Retrieved from " https: Robotic manipulation Robotic manipulators. Pages using div col with deprecated parameters. Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. This page was last edited on 18 Aprilat By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.