Data-driven optimization for underactuated robotic hands

— Passively adaptive and underactuated robotic hands have shown the potential to achieve reliable grasping in unstructured environments without expensive mechanisms or sensors. Instead of complex run-time algorithms, such hands use design-time analysis to improve performance for a wide range of tasks. Along these directions, we present an optimization framework for underactuated compliant hands. Our approach uses a pre-defined set of grasps in a quasistatic equilibrium formulation to compute the actuation mechanism design parameters that provide optimal performance. We apply our method to a class of tendon-actuated hands; for the simplified design of a two-fingered gripper, we show how a global optimum for the design optimization problem can be computed. We have implemented the results of this analysis in the construction of a gripper prototype, capable of a wide range of grasping tasks over a variety of objects.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Matei T. Ciocarlie, Peter K. Allen
• Keywords: Complex Run-time Algorithms, ICRA 2010, Robotics, Underactuated Compliant Hands, Wide Range