Two-fingered full envelope dexterous manipulation

Abstract

A method for full-envelope-rolling manipulation using a two-fingered robot hand is described. Full envelope refers to the use of the complete phalangeal surface during manipulation. A two-dimensional model for modeling an object manipulation is proposed. It is based on a study of the movement of the contact line between index and thumb. The method uses tactile sensor information to estimate the contact point position together with the local curvature of the object. This full envelope dexterous manipulation is demonstrated on a two-fingered hand. This hand consists of a tendon-driven index and thumb, equipped with force and tactile sensors within five degrees-of-freedom. The dimensions and performance of this device are human sized. A hybrid force position control scheme is used. The hierarchical control structure is implemented on a dual transputer system.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>