In this paper, a new biomimetic tendon-driven actuation system for prosthetic and wearable robotic hand applications is presented. It is based on the combination of compliant tendon cables and one-way shape memory alloy (SMA) wires that form a set of agonist–antagonist artificial muscle pairs for the required flexion/extension or abduction/adduction of the finger joints. The performance of the proposed actuation system is demonstrated using a 4 degree-of-freedom (three active and one passive) artificial finger testbed, also developed based on a biomimetic design approach. A microcontroller-based pulse-width-modulated proportionalderivation (PWM-PD) feedback controller and a minimum jerk trajectory feedforward controller are implemented and tested in an ad hoc fashion to evaluate the performance of the finger system in emulating natural joint motions. Part II describes the dynamic modeling of the above nonlinear system, and the model-based controller design.

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The exoskeleton-type system is a brand new type of man–machine intelligent system. It fully combines human intelligence and machine power so that machine in-telligence and human operator’s power are both enhanced. Therefore, it achieves a high-level performance that neither could separately. This paper describes the basic exoskeleton concepts from biological system to man–machine intelligent systems. It is followed by an overview of the development history of exoske-leton-type systems and their two main applications in teleoperation and human power augmentation. Besides the key technologies in exoskeleton-type systems, the research is presented from several viewpoints of the biomechanical design, system structure modelling, cooperation and function allocation, control strategy, and safety evaluation.

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