Manipulation and Grasping

For a humanoid robot to be truly useful, it must be able to manipulate objects in its environment. This involves a combination of perception, planning, and control.

Grasping

Grasping is the act of securely holding an object. It is a fundamental skill for manipulation.

• Form Closure: A grasp has form closure if the object is geometrically constrained by the fingers, such that it cannot move.
• Force Closure: A grasp has force closure if the robot can apply forces with its fingers to resist any external forces or torques on the object.

Grasp Planning

Grasp planning is the process of determining the optimal finger positions and forces to achieve a stable grasp. This is a challenging problem that involves reasoning about the geometry of the object, the capabilities of the robot's hand, and the task to be performed.