Dexterous programmable robot and control system

Claim 1

A dexterous robotic arm comprising: a hand section, a wrist section including an articulated wrist joint, and a forearm section; said hand section comprising; four flexible fingers, a thumb, and a palm member; said fingers including an index finger, a middle finger, a ring finger and a little finger, each being comprised of a distal link, a middle link, a proximal link and a knuckle link, said thumb being comprised of a distal link, a middle link, a proximal link and a base link; said fingers, thumb, and the links thereof being respectively sized to replicate the geometric proportions of the length of the digital phalanges of a human hand; said palm member comprising, a knuckle bracket for mounting said four flexible fingers thereon, an inner and outer side bracket, said thumb being attached to said inner side bracket, and a wrist bracket attached to said articulated wrist joint; said wrist joint being pivotally attached to said wrist bracket by attachment means such that it is able to rotate said palm member in elevation and being pivotally attached to said forearm section by attachment means such that it is able to rotate laterally with respect to said forearm section about a pivot on said forearm section; said knuckle bracket includes a middle finger mounting point and when said hand section is viewed from above, said knuckle bracket includes a relatively shorter and a relatively longer bracket segment, each including respective finger mounting points and extending rearwardly from said middle finger mounting point toward said wrist bracket; said knuckle bracket further, when said hand section is viewed from the front, is inclined downward on each side of said middle finger mounting point; each said flexible finger further including three bending joints connecting its links and thereby allowing it to rotationally bend upwardly and downwardly at these joints and being pivotally attached to said knuckle bracket of said palm member by attachment means such that it is able to rotate laterally whereby the space between the flexible fingers increases and decreases; said thumb further including three bending joints connecting its links and thereby allowing it to rotationally bend at each joint and being located adjacent said wrist joint on said inner side bracket by a rotatable base joint which allows said thumb to sweep under said palm member so as to oppose a tip portion of a predetermined finger of said flexible fingers, said proximal link of said thumb additionally comprising a first pair of mutually rotatable link sections for providing a first angular adjustment of said thumb, and wherein said base link of said thumb comprises a second pair of mutually rotatable link sections for providing a second angular adjustment of said thumb, and wherein said first pair of link sections of said proximal link of said thumb comprises a mutually aligned lower proximal link section and an upper proximal link section and said second pair of link sections of said base link of said thumb comprises a mutually offset lower base link section and an upper base link section and wherein said lower proximal link section is connected to said middle link at a first of said three bending joints, said upper proximal link section is connected to said upper base link section at a second of said three bending joints, and said lower base joint section is connected to said rotatable base joint; and drive means coupled to each of said sections for effecting controlled movement of said sections, said drive means further comprising servo motors and cabling means coupled to said hand section and to each said link of said flexible fingers and thumb at one end and coupled to said servo motors at the opposite end, wherein said servo motors, when actuated, cause said cabling to push/pull and thereby move said hand section, said flexible fingers, and said thumb.