How to manipulate an object robustly with only one actuator (An application of caging)

Abstract

Caging can offer robustness to uncertainties in grasping. If a robotic hand is designed based on the idea of caging, it would probably work well with noisy perception devices and low-quality control. This paper takes into account these merits and designs and implements a gripping hand based on the idea of caging. The gripping hand is concise and offers a low-cost alternative to co-operate with noisy data and low-quality control. According to previous work, we need four fingers to cage any 2D objects. That is to say, if each finger has one, two or three degree of freedoms, we will totally need four, eight or twelve actuators. The large number of actuators would be costly. This paper simplify the number of actuators into one by quantitatively analyzing finger formations with caging tests conducted on both random objects and objects from MPEG-7 shape database. It successfully lowers costs while maintains high performance. Following the simplified one-actuator design we implement a gripping hand by modifying a SCHUNK RH707 hand and carried out experiments with a manipulator built on the Neuronics Katana arm. The one-actuator gripping hand could work well with common depth cameras (Swiss Ranger) and pick up various objects. It bridges the gap between caging theories and applications and demonstrates the merits of caging.