In advanced robotics applications in unstructured environments (e.g. those foreseen in space) some degree of dexterity and autonomy is necessary in order to safely and successfully execute the required tasks. With this respect, besides the kinematic configuration, important aspects to be considered in the design of robotic end effectors are the sensorial equipment and proper control strategies....

Dexterous physical interactions with virtual creatures are important to bring the fun of playing with animals into arts and entertainment. For reality of interaction, virtual creatures need to react to highly varied user inputs in a variety of ways according to physical and psychological laws. We propose constructing virtual creatures using a physical simulator, sensor/attention models, and phy...

The paper presents a control architecture for grasping task of a novel dexterous hand whose 9 DOFs are actuated by a single-motor-driven actuator through 18 clutches. The architecture highlights the use of microprocessors for real-time control of the multifingered hand. The controller and sensors used in the control system of the hand are also described, which are especially effective to suitab...

In this paper we focus on the concept of low-dimensional posture subspaces for artificial hands. We begin by discussing the applicability of a hand configuration subspace to the problem of automated grasp synthesis our results show that low-dimensional optimization can be instrumental in deriving effective pre-grasp shapes for a number of complex robotic hands. We then show that the computation...

Dexterous action, as conceptualized by Bernstein in his influential ecological analysis of human behavior, is revealed in the ability to flexibly generate behaviors that are adaptively tailored to the demands of the context in which they are embedded. Conceived as complex adaptive behavior, dexterity depends upon the qualities of robustness and degeneracy, and is supported by the functional com...