POSTPONED TO SPRING 2021
Gripping a Kitchen Knife on the Cutting Board via a Multi-fingered Robotic Hand
Abstract: Despite more than three decades of robotic grasping research, many tools in our everyday life still pose a serious challenge for a robotic hand to grip. The level of dexterity for such a maneuver is surprisingly “high” that its execution may require a combination of closed-loop controls and finger gaits. We study the task of an anthropomorphic hand driven by a robotic arm to pick up and firmly hold a kitchen knife initially resting on the cutting board. In the first phase, the hand grasps the knife’s handle at two antipodal points and then pivots it about the knife’s point in contact with the board to leverage the latter’s support. Desired contact forces exerted by the two holding soft fingers are calculated and used for dynamic control of both the hand and the arm. In the second phase, a sequence of gaits for all the five fingers is performed quasi-statically to reach a powerful grasp on the knife’s handle, which remains still during the period. Simulation has been performed using models of the Shadow Hand and the UR10 arm.
Bio: Yuechuan Xue is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Iowa State University working with Dr. Yan-Bin Jia. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, in 2016. His research interests include robotic dexterous manipulation, path planning, and motion control.
Committee: Yan-Bin Jia (major professor, Sourabh Bhattacharya, Guang Song, Tichakorn Wongpiromsarn, and Wallapak Tavanapong
Email pavan@iastate.edu for link to view this videoconference.