Shear-based Grasp Control for Multi-fingered Underactuated Tactile Robotic Hands

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ford, Christopher J., Li, Haoran, Catalano, Manuel G., Bianchi, Matteo, Psomopoulou, Efi, Lepora, Nathan F.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ford, Christopher J.
Li, Haoran
Catalano, Manuel G.
Bianchi, Matteo
Psomopoulou, Efi
Lepora, Nathan F.
author_facet Ford, Christopher J.
Li, Haoran
Catalano, Manuel G.
Bianchi, Matteo
Psomopoulou, Efi
Lepora, Nathan F.
contents This paper presents a shear-based control scheme for grasping and manipulating delicate objects with a Pisa/IIT anthropomorphic SoftHand equipped with soft biomimetic tactile sensors on all five fingertips. These `microTac' tactile sensors are miniature versions of the TacTip vision-based tactile sensor, and can extract precise contact geometry and force information at each fingertip for use as feedback into a controller to modulate the grasp while a held object is manipulated. Using a parallel processing pipeline, we asynchronously capture tactile images and predict contact pose and force from multiple tactile sensors. Consistent pose and force models across all sensors are developed using supervised deep learning with transfer learning techniques. We then develop a grasp control framework that uses contact force feedback from all fingertip sensors simultaneously, allowing the hand to safely handle delicate objects even under external disturbances. This control framework is applied to several grasp-manipulation experiments: first, retaining a flexible cup in a grasp without crushing it under changes in object weight; second, a pouring task where the center of mass of the cup changes dynamically; and third, a tactile-driven leader-follower task where a human guides a held object. These manipulation tasks demonstrate more human-like dexterity with underactuated robotic hands by using fast reflexive control from tactile sensing.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17501
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Shear-based Grasp Control for Multi-fingered Underactuated Tactile Robotic Hands
Ford, Christopher J.
Li, Haoran
Catalano, Manuel G.
Bianchi, Matteo
Psomopoulou, Efi
Lepora, Nathan F.
Robotics
This paper presents a shear-based control scheme for grasping and manipulating delicate objects with a Pisa/IIT anthropomorphic SoftHand equipped with soft biomimetic tactile sensors on all five fingertips. These `microTac' tactile sensors are miniature versions of the TacTip vision-based tactile sensor, and can extract precise contact geometry and force information at each fingertip for use as feedback into a controller to modulate the grasp while a held object is manipulated. Using a parallel processing pipeline, we asynchronously capture tactile images and predict contact pose and force from multiple tactile sensors. Consistent pose and force models across all sensors are developed using supervised deep learning with transfer learning techniques. We then develop a grasp control framework that uses contact force feedback from all fingertip sensors simultaneously, allowing the hand to safely handle delicate objects even under external disturbances. This control framework is applied to several grasp-manipulation experiments: first, retaining a flexible cup in a grasp without crushing it under changes in object weight; second, a pouring task where the center of mass of the cup changes dynamically; and third, a tactile-driven leader-follower task where a human guides a held object. These manipulation tasks demonstrate more human-like dexterity with underactuated robotic hands by using fast reflexive control from tactile sensing.
title Shear-based Grasp Control for Multi-fingered Underactuated Tactile Robotic Hands
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17501