Pose from pushing

In the absence of vision, grasping an object often relies on tactile feedback from the fingertips. Before force closure is formed, where on the object a fingertip touches can usually be felt from the motion of contact on the fingertip during a small amount of pushing. In this paper the authors investigate the first stage of such "blind" grasping. More specifically the authors study the problem of determining the pose of a known planar object by pushing. Assuming sliding friction in the plane, a dynamic analysis of pushing results in a numerical algorithm that compares the object pose from three instantaneous contact positions on a fingertip. Simulations and experiments (with an Adept robot) have been conducted to demonstrate the sensing feasibility. Inspired by the way a human hand grasps, this work can be viewed as a primitive step in exploring interactive sensing in grasping tasks.

Authors

• Yan-Bin Jia
• Michael A. Erdmann

Keywords

• Fingers
• Shape
• Friction
• Computational modeling
• Robotic assembly
• Grasping
• Motion analysis
• Robot vision systems
• Computer science
• Feedback
• Numerical Algorithm
• Object Plane
• Absence Of Vision
• Differential Equations
• Center Of Mass
• Contact Point
• Angular Velocity
• Pressure Distribution
• Intermediate Position
• Tactile Sensor
• Geometric Constraints
• Angular Acceleration
• Newton-Raphson Method
• Degenerate Case
• Contact Gap