A robotic hand with the dexterity to sign the whole ASL alphabet

Even if we ignore intelligence, humans are able to speak when other animals — even other great apes — can’t, because of our specialized and complex vocal anatomy. Similarly, ASL (American Sign Language) wouldn’t be possible without our incredible hand and finger dexterity. Like any other complex physiological system, that is difficult to recreate artificially. But Kelvin Gonzalez was able to pull it off and build his Vulcan V3 robotic hand that has the dexterity to sign the whole ASL alphabet.

ASL incorporates many, many handshapes and combinations beyond just the alphabet, but signing the entire alphabet is a good demonstration of this robot’s capability. And it does that very well, with a demonstration proving that it can quickly and smoothly transition between each letter sign in a very humanlike manner. And every joint has enough range to let the Vulcan V3 “flip over” from a left hand to a right hand orientation, so it can sign from either side.

Gonzalez was even able to achieve that on a modest budget of $300. Most of that went into the 24 servo motors (four in each finger, five in the thumb, and three for the wrist/forearm). Almost all of the mechanical parts are 3D-printed. The two other major components are an Arduino Mega 2560 board and a PCA9685-based servo driver board.

It may look like The Infinity Gauntlet, but the Vulcan V3 is genuinely impressive. Even ignoring its ASL capability, its dexterity would be useful for many other applications.