Designing Underactuated Graspers with Dynamically Variable Geometry Using Potential Energy Map Based Analysis
Abstract
This paper introduces an extension to the energy map method for in-hand manipulation. Energy maps are used to predict how a part will evolve in the grasp given a specific actuation input to the gripper. Previous approaches assumed frictionless contacts, but we show analytically that friction can be included in the energy maps when using two-link underactuated fingers by understanding the evolution of the part-finger contact. These friction-based energy maps were used to evaluate the importance of various tendon-pulley gripper parameters across nearly 6 million simulated grasping scenarios. Specifically, a variable palm width is needed to manipulate parts of varying scales, and a variable transmission ratio, or the ratio of the distal to the proximal pulley radii, is needed to draw parts into a cage or to maintain a tip prehension grasp.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2203.07456,
title = {Designing Underactuated Graspers with Dynamically Variable Geometry Using Potential Energy Map Based Analysis},
author = {C. L. Yako and Shenli Yuan and J. Kenneth Salisbury},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.07456},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
This is an updated version of my original paper (with the same title) published in IROS 2022. Parts of this work were refined or corrected in Chapter 3 of my dissertation, Good Vibrations: Toward Vibration-Based Robotic In-Hand Manipulation (DOI: 10.25740/mm182vq8220), and many of those changes have been incorporated here