Object manipulation with dextrous multi-finger hands: improved computation method

This paper deals with the two fundamental problems that occur when objects are manipulated with multi-finger robot hands: the determination of the joint motions to perform a manipulation according to a given object trajectory, and the optimization of the joint torques needed to ensure a stable and secure grip. The consideration of the effect of rolling and slipping of the fingertips at the contact points on the object surface leads to a set of linear differential equations for the joint angles and to a partly nonlinear optimization problem for the joint torques solved by the Hooke-Jeeves algorithm. The removal of redundant information reduces the computational effort to about 40% of the operations required for the standard procedure. Especially, the resulting object motions are demonstrated at an example: the rotation of an ellipsoid object with the fingers of the Karlsruhe dextrous hand