Stiffness analysis and control of multi-fingered robot hands

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the stiffness of a grasp as a function of grasp configuration, grasp forces and joint stiffness of the fingers. The effects caused by the change of joint configuration is included in the computation of the joint stiffness in terms of Stiffness Induced from Configuration Change and Force (SICC). Based on the analysis, the Decentralized Object Stiffness Control (DOSC) method is proposed so as to achieve the desired overall grasp stiffness. The effects of SICC nt the joint stiffness and the performance of the proposed stiffness control method are experimentally verified using a two fingered robot hand.