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Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

This paper introduces a principle to guide the design of finger form: invariance of contact geometry over some continuum of varying shape and/or pose of the grasped object in the plane. Specific applications of this principle include scale-invariant and pose-invariant grasps. Under specific conditions, the principle gives rise to spiral shaped fingers, including logarithmic spirals and straight lines as special cases. The paper presents a general technique to solve for finger form, given a continuum of shape or pose variation and a property to be held invariant. We apply the technique to derive scale-invariant and pose-invariant grasps for disks, and we also explore the principle's application to many common devices from jar wrenches to rock-climbing cams.

Keywords

Grasping, Hand design, finger design, finger form

Notes

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Center for the Foundations of Robotics

Associated Lab(s) / Group(s): Manipulation Lab

Associated Project(s): Simple Hands

Text Reference

Alberto Rodriguez and Matthew T. Mason, "Grasp Invariance," International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR 2010), December, 2010.

BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{Rodriguez_2010_6730,
   author = "Alberto Rodriguez and Matthew T. Mason",
   title = "Grasp Invariance",
   booktitle = "International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR 2010)",
   month = "December",
   year = "2010",
}

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