Simulation-Based Design and Evaluation of a Robotic Hand for Combat Casualty Care Tasks

Robotic hands are critical components for contact-rich manipulation tasks, enabling robots to interact with their environment and playing a pivotal role in mission-critical domains such as emergency medical interventions. While existing robotic hand designs excel in industrial and generalized manipulation tasks, they fall short in addressing the unique requirements of casualty care and medical tool manipulation in dynamic, high-stakes environments. This article identifies key limitations in current robotic hand technologies, including their inadequate task specialization, lack of functional manipulation capabilities, and insufficient validation methodologies. To address these gaps, we present a simulation-based, task-specific design and validation framework for a robotic hand specialized for emergency medical interventions. Via a customized, multifidelity simulation framework and a biomechanically accurate digital human model, our system enables realistic contact modeling and physical human-robot interactions. This approach also considers functional tool usage beyond stable grasping. This simulation-driven approach allows iterative refinement of designs through continuous feedback loops and ensures thorough, precise performance validation. These contributions collectively advance the state of robotic hand design, enabling more capable and reliable robotic systems for improving patient care and supporting medical personnel in operational settings.