Intelligent Passive Mechanics
Compliance conveys several advantages for robotic grasping. In unstructured environments, sensing uncertainties are large and target object size and location may be poorly known.
Finger compliance allows the gripper to conform to a wide range of objects while minimizing contact forces.
Robot joint compliance or stiffness has often been considered in the context of active control, where active control uses sensors and actuators to achieve a desired force-deflection relationship.
In contrast, passive compliance, implemented through springs in robot joints, offers additional benefits, particularly in impacts, where control loop delays may lead to poor control of contact forces.
The reduced need for the sensing required to create active compliance can also lead to lower implementation costs.
Video
Publications
Aaron M. Dollar and Robert D. Howe
The Highly Adaptive SDM Hand: Design and Performance Evaluation,
The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 29, No. 5, 585-597, 2010
Aaron M. Dollar, Leif Jentoft, Jason H. Gao, and Robert D. Howe
Contact Sensing and Grasping Performance of Compliant Hands,
Autonomous Robots, special issue on Mobile Manipulation, 28(1) 2010
Aaron M. Dollar and Robert D. Howe
A Robust Compliant Grasper via Shape Deposition Manufacturing, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 11(2), 2006.
Aaron M. Dollar and Robert D. Howe
The SDM Hand as a Prosthetic Terminal Device: A Feasibility Study, Winner
of the Best Student Paper Award, Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE
International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Noordwijk,
Netherlands, June 12-15, 2007.
Aaron M. Dollar and Robert D. Howe
Towards Grasping in Unstructured Environments: Grasper Compliance and Configuraton Optimization, Advanced Robotics, vol. 19(5), pp. 523-543, 2005.
Aaron M. Dollar and Robert D. Howe
Joint Coupling Design of Underactuated Grippers, submitted to the ASME 30th Annual Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, 2006 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC), Philadelphia, PA, Sept. 10-13, 2006.