Patent ID: 8489239

Claim:
A robotic system comprising: a robotic finger driven by a tendon, wherein the robotic finger includes a plurality of joints and a tension sensor positioned in or along the robotic finger; an actuator connected to the tendon and operable to move the robotic finger, via tensioning of the tendon, with respect to at least one of the joints of the robotic finger; and a control system providing a two-tier control architecture or hierarchy, including a joint-level controller which forms an upper control loop and an actuator-level controller which forms a lower control loop of the two-tier control architecture or hierarchy, wherein the control system is configured for: determining whether the tension sensor is functioning properly or otherwise available in the robotic finger to measure a tension value of the tendon; selectively controlling the robotic finger via a force-based control law or a position-based control law, via the joint-level controller, when the tension sensor is available in the robotic finger; and selectively controlling the robotic finger via only the position-based control law, solely via the actuator controller, when the tension sensor is not available in the robotic finger to measure the tension value.