"The Shadow Dexterous Hand demonstrates an anthropomorphic approach to robot manipulation. With 20 actuated degrees of freedom, position and force sensors, and ultra sensitive touch sensors on the fingertips, the hand provides unique capabilities for problems that require the closest approximation of the human hand currently possible. The Shadow Dexterous Hand uses industry standard interfaces and can be used as a tele-operation tool or mounted on a range of robot arms as part of a robot system." - Shadow Robot Company
I worked chiefly as a mechanical engineer designing a humanoid arm. The arm had 3 degrees of freedom powered by air muscles and supported the shadow hand. I made modifications to the hand design itself, including redesign of the base of the thumb where many tendons needed to pass through three moving joints in a very confined space. I spent time assembling and testing the Hands and produced detailed assembly instructions for the fingers and thumb.
At Shadow I was involved at every level of the design process, almost always carrying out the entire design and production of parts myself. As well as CAD software I used workshop tools, CAM software and operated CNC milling machines on a daily basis.
Images courtesy of the Shadow Robot Company