Robot Grasp Control

Grasp control refers to the art of controlling the motion of an object by constraining its dynamics through contacts with a hand. The process of controlling the grasp is not limited to robotic hands only but also applies to human hands (Johansson and Edin 1991) and to all other mechanisms using contact constraints to control the motion of the manipulated object (Brost and Goldberg 1996). A crucial role in the control of grasping is played by contact constraints. All the interactions between the robotic hand and the grasped object occur at the contacts whose understanding is paramount (Salisbury and Roth 1983). The unilateral nature of contact interaction in grasping makes the control problems much more challenging than cooperative manipulation where multiple arms hold the object rigidly allowing bilateral force transmission at each contact point (Chiacchio et al. 1991). The importance of unilateral contact constraints in grasping led a large part of the literature to focus..

Robot Grasp Control

Given a grasping system composed by a robotic hand and a grasped object, the aim of grasp control is to make the object follow a certain desired trajectory while preserving the contact. In this essay, after a concise explanation of the mathematical model of a grasping system, with a particular focus on the contact constraints, a computed-torque controller that guarantees trajectory tracking and grasp maintenance is described. Last sections contain suggestions for further reading and information about open research challenges in the field of grasp control

Towards humanlike social touch for sociable robotics and prosthetics: Comparisons on the compliance, conformance and hysteresis of synthetic and human fingertip skins

10.1007/s12369-008-0008-9International Journal of Social Robotics1129-4