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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, Manipulation, Finger design, Mechanism Design.

Notes

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

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

Associated Project(s): Simple Hands

Number of pages: 13

Text Reference

Alberto Rodriguez and Matthew T. Mason, "Grasp Invariance," The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), Vol. 31, No. 2, February, 2012, pp. 237-249.

BibTeX Reference

@article{Rodriguez_2012_6937,
   author = "Alberto Rodriguez and Matthew T. Mason",
   title = "Grasp Invariance",
   journal = "The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)",
   pages = "237-249",
   month = "February",
   year = "2012",
   volume = "31",
   number = "2",
}

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