Robotic Dexterous Manipulation via Anisotropic Friction Modulation using Passive Rollers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Fisk, Ethan, Lee, Taeyoon, Yuan, Shenli
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Fisk, Ethan
Lee, Taeyoon
Yuan, Shenli
author_facet Fisk, Ethan
Lee, Taeyoon
Yuan, Shenli
contents Controlling friction at the fingertip is fundamental to dexterous manipulation, yet remains difficult to realize in robotic hands. We present the design and analysis of a robotic fingertip equipped with passive rollers that can be selectively braked or pivoted to modulate contact friction and constraint directions. When unbraked, the rollers permit unconstrained sliding of the contact point along the rolling direction; when braked, they resist motion like a conventional fingertip. The rollers are mounted on a pivoting mechanism, allowing reorientation of the constraint frame to accommodate different manipulation tasks. We develop a constraint-based model of the fingertip integrated into a parallel-jaw gripper and analyze its ability to support diverse manipulation strategies. Experiments show that the proposed design enables a wide range of dexterous actions that are conventionally challenging for robotic grippers, including sliding and pivoting within the grasp, robust adaptation to uncertain contacts, multi-object or multi-part manipulation, and interactions requiring asymmetric friction across fingers. These results demonstrate the versatility of passive roller fingertips as a low-complexity, mechanically efficient approach to friction modulation, advancing the development of more adaptable and robust robotic manipulation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_27452
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robotic Dexterous Manipulation via Anisotropic Friction Modulation using Passive Rollers
Fisk, Ethan
Lee, Taeyoon
Yuan, Shenli
Robotics
Controlling friction at the fingertip is fundamental to dexterous manipulation, yet remains difficult to realize in robotic hands. We present the design and analysis of a robotic fingertip equipped with passive rollers that can be selectively braked or pivoted to modulate contact friction and constraint directions. When unbraked, the rollers permit unconstrained sliding of the contact point along the rolling direction; when braked, they resist motion like a conventional fingertip. The rollers are mounted on a pivoting mechanism, allowing reorientation of the constraint frame to accommodate different manipulation tasks. We develop a constraint-based model of the fingertip integrated into a parallel-jaw gripper and analyze its ability to support diverse manipulation strategies. Experiments show that the proposed design enables a wide range of dexterous actions that are conventionally challenging for robotic grippers, including sliding and pivoting within the grasp, robust adaptation to uncertain contacts, multi-object or multi-part manipulation, and interactions requiring asymmetric friction across fingers. These results demonstrate the versatility of passive roller fingertips as a low-complexity, mechanically efficient approach to friction modulation, advancing the development of more adaptable and robust robotic manipulation.
title Robotic Dexterous Manipulation via Anisotropic Friction Modulation using Passive Rollers
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27452