Dexterous Manipulation Through Rolling - Robotics and Automation, 1995. Proceedings., 1995 IEEE International Conference on

Nonholonomic constraintss in robotic syst,ems are the source of some difficulties in planning a.nd control; however, t,hey also int,roduce int,erest,ing properties t,hat can be practically exploited. In this paper we consider the design of a robot hand that achieves dext,erit,y (i.e., the ability t o arbitrarily locate and reorient, ma,nipulat,ed objects) through rolling. Some int,eresting issries arising in planning and cont,rolling motions of such device are considered, including exact planning for a spherical object and a.pproximate pla.nning for general ohject8s. An experiment,al prot,otype of a t,liree--plus-one d.0.f. ha.nd achieving dext,erous manipiila.tion capabilities i s described along wit,h experimental results from manipulat,ion.