The Pisa/IIT SoftHand is a simple, robust and effective hand designed for grasping and soft manipulation. Simple because only one motor actuates the whole hand. Robust because innovative, biomorphic joint design allows perfect recoversing after large deformations and even disarticulation. Effective thanks to the soft-synergy idea applied to 19 degrees of freedom. The idea at the core of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, i.e. soft synergies, comes from the combination of natural motor control principles. As a result the hand pose is not predetermined, but depends on the physical interaction of its body with the environment, allowing to grasp a geat variety of objects despite its single degree of actuation. The Pisa/IIT SoftHand is an open hardware project under the umbrella of thye Natural Machine Motion Initiative. A commercial version of the hand, the qbhand, is produced by a spinoff of Centro Piaggio and IIT, qbrobotics srl, intended for industrial applications.

SoftHandPro is the prosthetic version of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, developed thanks to SoftPro, a H2020 research project. Thirty prosthetic users are currently testing it in 4 academic and rehabilitation centers around the world, to improve design, dexterity, and fitness to myoelectric prosthetic use. The latest design of the hand is smaller and lighter while keeping its original merits: simplicity, due to the presence of one only motor; compliance, strength and robustness, thanks to its unique feature: the intrinsic softness of its human-like 19 degrees of freedom. The hand is also used to conduct experiment in rehabilitation for stroke patients.

Assisted Living

• Prosthetics
• Rehabilitation