Inverse Kinematics for Object Manipulation with Redundant Multi-fingered Robotic Hands

Introduction

Many applications of service robotics are based on object manipulation with multi-fingered mechanical hands, where the fingers should operate in a coordinated fashion to achieve the desired motion of the manipulated object. In the absence of physical interaction between the fingers and the object, simple motion synchronization shall be ensured. On the other hand, the execution of object grasping or manipulation requires controlling also the interaction forces, to ensure grasp stability [1].

An important issue in multi-fingered robotic manipulation is the formulation of the coordinated task. From a purely kinematics point of view, the task is usually assigned in terms of the motion of the fingertips and/or in terms of the desired motion of the manipulated object. In all cases, the next step toward implementation is that of mapping the desired task into the corresponding joint trajectories for the fingers. This operation can be carried out at planning or at control level, but always requires the solution of an inverse kinematics problem.