Analysis on the fundamental deformation effect of soft fingertips for soft-fingered object manipulations

This paper focuses on the fundamental deformation effect of soft fingertips as applied in soft-fingered object manipulations. In order to analyze the deformation effect, we first describe the dynamic relation of a two-fingered object manipulation using soft fingertips. From the dynamic relation, we show that the fundamental deformation effect of soft fingertips is essential for soft-fingered manipulations. A dynamic manipulation control method considering the deformation effect is also proposed. Simulation results show that the deformation effect of soft fingertips during the manipulation process is crucial for stable manipulation. Finally, we conclude that the deformation effect of soft fingertips is desirable to be properly considered in a manipulation control law for successful soft-fingered manipulation tasks.