3-D Grasp Analysis and Synthesis Using the Ray-Shooting Technique

Abstract

The ray-shooting technique is a powerful tool for handling geometric information in Computational Geometry and Computer Graphics. This chapter demonstrates that this technique can be effectively applied to stability analysis and planning of 3-D form-closure grasps in continuous and discrete domains. In form-closure grasps, any external wrench applied at the grasped object can be always balanced by the grasping forces at the contact points. A ray-shooting based formulation, which leads to several simple and efficient algorithms, is presented for qualitative test and computation of 3-D form-closure grasps as well as for automatic fixture layout design of workpieces.