Automatic grasp planning in the presence of uncertainty

This paper presents a method for automatic planning of robot grasping motions that are insensitive to bounded uncertainties in the object´s location. The method exploits the physics of friction to generate all grasp plans that utilize either a squeez-grasp, offset-grasp, or push-grasp motion. All plans that are found will succeed even if the worst-case error occurs. From this space of plans, a plan can be chosen and executed without sensing or feedback. Moreover, executing the motion removes two degrees of uncertainty from the object´s position. For simplicity, planar motion of the object during grasping is assumed. The planner has been implemented, and the resulting program has been tested on an industrial manipulator.