In this paper, we survey the work in robotic grasping related areas that has been done over the last two decades, with a bias toward the development of the theoretical framework and analytical results in this area. In addition we assess the state of the art in this area and outline some of the important open problems.

This paper"'describes some preliminary work on dynamic manipulation--some ezamples, a definition, and analysis of throwing a club

This paper explores a method of manipulating a planar rigid body on a conveyor belt using a robot with just one joint. This approach has the potential of offering a simple and flexible method for feeding parts in industrial automation applications. In this paper we outline our approach, develop some of the theoretical properties, present a planner for the robot, and describe an initial implementation. 1

. This paper explores a method of manipulating a planar rigid part on a conveyor belt using a robot with just one joint. This approach has the potential of offering a simple and flexible method for feeding parts in industrial automation applications. In this paper we develop a model of this system and of a variation which requires no sensing. We have been able to characterize these systems and to prove that they can serve as parts feeding devices for planar polygonal parts. We present the planners for these systems and describe our implementations. Key Words. Robotics, Manipulation, Mechanics, Planning, Minimalism, Automation, Manufacturing, Parts feeding. 1. Introduction. The most straightforward approach to planar manipulation is to use a rigid grasp and a robot with at least three joints, corresponding to the three motion freedoms of a planar rigid part, but three joints are not really necessary to manipulate a part in the plane. In this paper we achieve effective control of all t...

operation in industrial automation. Recent work explores alternative solutions to the mechanical parts feeders which have been traditionally used to sort and orient parts for assembly. One of the proposed alternatives is the use of programmable vector fields. The fields are realized on a plane on which the part is placed. The forces exerted on the part's contact surface translate and rotate the part to an equilibrium orientation. It has already been demonstrated that certain vector fields can be implemented in the microscale with MEMS actuators arrays and in the macroscale with transversely vibrating plates. Although current technology is still limited, the dexterity that programmable vector fields offer has prompted researchers to further explore their capabilities. This paper presents a vector field that can simultaneously orient and pose most parts into two stable equilibrium configurations. The equilibrium configurations are easily computed a priori given the part to be oriented. Our analysis makes no assumptions about the shape of the part or its connectivity except that it moves as a rigid body. The proposed vector field offers the great advantage of stability of the equilibrium configurations under small perturbations of the part which is key for the orientation of toleranced parts.

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In this paper, an attempt at summarizing the evolution and the state-of-the-art in the field of robot hands is made. In such exposition, a critical evaluation of what in the author's view are the leading ideas and emerging trends, is privileged with respect to exhaustiveness of citations. The survey is focused mainly on three types of functional requirements a machine hand can be assigned in an artificial system, namely, manipulative dexterity, grasp robustness, and human operability. A basic distinction is made between hands designed for mimicking the human anatomy and physiology, and hands designed to meet restricted, practical requirements. In the latter domain, arguments are presented in favor of a "minimalistic" attitude in the design of hands for practical applications, i.e., use the least number of actuators, the simplest set of sensors, etc., for a given task. To achieve this rather obvious engineering goal is a challenge to our community. The paper illustrates some of the ...

this paper is to use a single joint robot to push an object on a constant speed conveyor belt. This paper summarizes the approach, previously described in [3], and extends the approach to include the problem of orienting polygonal objects without a sensor. 1 Introduction

We are interested in using low degree-of-freedom robots to perform complex tasks by nonprehensile manipulation (manipulation without a form- or force-closure grasp). By not grasping, the robot can use gravitational, centrifugal, and Coriolis forces as virtual motors to control more degreesof -freedom of the part. The extra motion freedoms of the part are exhibited as rolling, slipping, and free flight.

We describe a programmable apparatus that uses a vibrating surface for sensorless, nonprehensile manipulation, where parts are systematically positioned and oriented without sensor feedback or force closure. The idea is to generate and change the dynamic modes of a vibrating surface. Depending on the node shapes of the surface, the position and orientation of the parts can be predicted and constrained. The vibrating surface creates a two-dimensional force vector field. By chaining together sequences of force fields, the equilibrium states of a part in the field can be successively reduced to obtain a desired final state. We describe efficient polynomial-time algorithms that generate sequences of force fields for sensorless positioning and orienting of planar parts, and we show that these strategies are complete. Finally we consider parts feeders that can only implement a finite set of force fields. We show how to plan and execute strategies for these devices. We give numerical exampl...