Abstract
An anthropomorphic hand, manufacturable by 3D printing, usable as a robotic end effector and as an active prosthetic hand (Yeah Hand, first published as Rebelia V2). Five rotary actuators are housed inside an internal skeleton of the hand. Each finger is driven by one actuator through an antagonistic pair of tendon ends, one for flexion and one for extension. Each tendon end runs inside its own low-friction Bowden tube (PTFE) from the finger to the actuator; the tubes are seated in holes, pass-through tunnels and slots formed in the printed skeleton, which separate and guide the tendons without a separate tendon barrier. On each actuator flange a two-part spool, made of a flexion spool and an extension spool stacked and fixed by the same screws, takes up one tendon end while releasing the other. The ring and little fingers share one actuator, with the tendon ends of both fingers fixed directly to the same spool. The thumb-rotation actuator, carrying the thumb base on its flange, is mounted on a separate platform inserted into the skeleton. The four upper fingers are identical, interchangeable modules with tendons pre-installed. The controller reads position, load, voltage, temperature and current from each actuator, performs whole-hand calibration and force-limited grasps, streams feedback for ROS, and supports two-channel EMG control in the prosthetic version. First published on GitHub on 26 November 2025 (https://github.com/opsobot/rebelia/tree/V2); current release v1.3 archived on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23397456).
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Lumare, Vittorio, "Tendon-driven anthropomorphic hand with Bowden-tube tendon routing inside the hand skeleton, two-part antagonistic spools, direct finger coupling on the spool and a removable thumb-rotation actuator platform, for robotic and prosthetic use", Technical Disclosure Commons, ()
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/12267
Alternative embodiments, variants and possible extensions (part of this disclosure)
YeahHand-Assembly-Instructions-Rev1.8-EN-for-TDCommons.pdf (6374 kB)
Yeah Hand assembly instructions Rev 1.8 (EN), published on GitHub on 5 October 2026; personal address, signature, draft declaration and third-party certificates removed