Robotic grasping: gripper designs, control methods and grasp configurations – a review of research

Abstract

The application of robots to industrial problems often requires grasping and manipulation of the work piece. The robot is able to perform a task adequately only when it is assigned proper tooling and adequate methods of grasping and handling work pieces. The design of such a task requires an in‐depth knowledge of several interrelated subjects including: gripper design, force, position, stiffness and compliance control and grasp configurations. In this paper, we review the research finding on these subjects in order to present in a concise manner, which can be easily accessed by the designers of robot task, the information reported by the researchers, and identify based on the review, future research directions in these areas.