A control method for a robot hand grasping a object in a partially unknown environment will be proposed, where a proximate sensor detecting the distance between the fingertip and object was used. Particularly, the finger joints were driven servo-pneumatically in this study. Based on the proximate sensor signal the finger motion controller could plan the grasping process divided in three phases ; fast aproach, slow transitional contact and contact force control. That is, the fingertip approached to the object with full speed, until the output signal of the proximate sensor began to change. Within the perating range of the proximate sensor, the finger joint was moved by a state-variable feedback position controller in order to obtain a smooth contact with the object. The contact force of fingertip was then controlled using the blocked-line pressure sensitivity of the flow control servovalve for finger joint control. In this way, the grasping impact could be reduced without reducing the object approaching speed. The performance of the proposed grasping method was experimentally compared with that of a open loop-controlled one.