Abstract: After a brief tutorial of the research carried
out at PRISMA Lab, along with the highlights from the current projects, the talk reports some recent
results achieved within the framework of the European project DEXMART. An
important issue in controlling a multi-fingered robotic hand grasping an object
is the synthesis of the optimal contact points and the evaluation of the
minimal contact forces able to guarantee the stability of the grasp and its
feasibility. Both these problems can be solved online if suitable sensing
information is available. In detail, using images taken by a camera mounted in
an eye-in-hand configuration, a surface reconstruction algorithm and a grasp
planner evolving in a synchronized parallel way have been designed for fast
visual grasp of objects of unknown geometry. On the other hand, using finger
tactile information and contact force measurements, an efficient algorithm was
developed to compute the optimal contact forces, assuming
that, during the execution of a manipulation task, both the position of the
contact points on the object and the wrench to be balanced by the contact
forces may change with time. Another goal pursued in DEXMART was the
development of a human-like grasping approach inspired to neuroscience studies.
In order to simplify the synthesis of a grasp, a configuration subspace based
on few predominant postural synergies of the robotic hand has been computed.
This approach was evaluated at kinematic level, showing that power and precise
grasps can be performed using up to the third predominant synergy. The talk concludes by outlining active trends and perspectives in the field of
robotics.
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