Optimization of Robot Grasping Forces and Worst Case Loading
This work addresses a specific challenge in robotics for precise force control in grasping tasks, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing frameworks with limited novelty.
The paper tackles the problem of optimizing grasping forces for robots to support external loads, deriving an expression for optimal forces and characterizing the maximum external force the system can handle.
We consider the optimization of the vector of grasping forces that support a known generalized force acting on the grasped object---a rigid body or a mechanism. Working in the framework of finite-dimensional normed vector spaces and their dual spaces, the cost function to be minimized is assumed to be a norm on the space of grasping forces. We present an expression for the optimum which depends on the external force and the kinematics of the grasping system. Next, assuming that optimal grasping forces are applied using force control, and assuming that there is a bound on the norm of the admissible grasping forces, we characterize the largest norm of an external force that the grasping system may support, that is, the norm of the worst-case loading that may be applied and still be supported. A few simple examples are given for the sake of illustration.