%0 Book Section %B Gearing up and accelerating cross-fertilization between academic and industrial robotics research in Europe - Technology transfer experiments from the ECHORD project %D 2014 %T HANDS.DVI: A DeVice-Independent programming and control framework for robotic HANDS %A G. Salvietti %A G. Gioioso %A M. Malvezzi %A D Prattichizzo %A A. Serio %A E. Farnioli %A M Gabiccini %A A. Bicchi %A I. Sarakoglou %A N G Tsagarakis %A D. G. Caldwell %K Haptics %K Robotics %X

The scientific goal of HANDS.DVI consists of developing a common
framework to programming robotic hands independently from their kinematics,
mechanical construction, and sensor equipment complexity. Recent results on the
organization of the human hand in grasping and manipulation are the inspiration
for this experiment. The reduced set of parameters that we effectively use to control
our hands is known in the literature as the set of synergies. The synergistic
organization of the human hand is the theoretical foundation of the innovative approach
to design a unified framework for robotic hands control. Theoretical tools
have been studied to design a suitable mapping function of the control action (decomposed
in its elemental action) from a human hand model domain onto the
articulated robotic hand co-domain. The developed control framework has been
applied on an experimental set up consisting of two robotic hands with dissimilar
kinematics grasping an object instrumented with force sensors.

%B Gearing up and accelerating cross-fertilization between academic and industrial robotics research in Europe - Technology transfer experiments from the ECHORD project %V 94 %P 197-215 %G eng %R 10.1007/978-3-319-02934-4_10 %0 Journal Article %J IEEE Transactions on Robotics %D 2013 %T On Motion and Force Controllability of Precision Grasps with Hands Actuated by Soft Synergies %A D Prattichizzo %A M. Malvezzi %A M Gabiccini %A A. Bicchi %K Haptics %K Robotics %X

To adapt to many different objects and tasks, hands are very complex systems with many degrees of freedom (DoFs), sensors, and actuators. In robotics, such complexity comes at the cost of size and weight of the hardware of devices, but it strongly affects also the ease of their programming. A possible approach to simplification consists in coupling some of the DOFs, thus affording a reduction of the number of effective inputs, and eventually leading to more efficient, simpler, and reliable designs. Such coupling can be at the software level, to achieve faster, more intuitive programmability or at the hardware level, through either rigid or compliant physical couplings between joints. Physical coupling between actuators and simplification of control through the reduction of independent inputs is also an often-reported interpretation of human hand movement data, where studies have demonstrated that few “postural synergies” explain most of the variance in hand configurations used to grasp different objects. Together with beneficial simplifications, the reduction of the number of independent inputs to a few coupled motions or “synergies” has also an impact on the ability of the hand to dexterously control grasp forces and in-hand manipulation. This paper aims to develop tools that establish how many synergies should be involved in a grasp to guarantee stability and efficiency, depending on the task and on the hand embodiment. Through the analysis of a quasi-static model, grasp structural properties related to contact force and object motion controllability are defined. Different compliant sources are considered, for a generalization of the discussion. In particular, a compliant model for synergies assumed, referred to as “soft synergies,” is discussed. The controllable internal forces and motions of the grasped object are related to the actuated inputs. This paper investigates to what extent a hand with many joints can ex- loit postural synergies to control force and motion of the grasped object.

%B IEEE Transactions on Robotics %V 29 %P 1440 - 1456 %8 12/2013 %G eng %N 6 %R 10.1109/TRO.2013.2273849 %0 Conference Paper %B IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013) %D 2013 %T SynGrasp: a MATLAB Toolbox for Grasp Analysis of Human and Robotic Hands %A M. Malvezzi %A G. Gioioso %A G. Salvietti %A D Prattichizzo %A A. Bicchi %K Robotics %B IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013) %P 1088 - 1093 %G eng %U 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630708 %0 Journal Article %J Robotics and Autonomous Systems, special issue on Autonomous Grasping %D 2012 %T On the Manipulability Ellipsoids of Underactuated Robotic Hands with Compliance Robotics and Autonomous Systems %A D Prattichizzo %A M. Malvezzi %A M Gabiccini %A A. Bicchi %K Haptics %K Robotics %B Robotics and Autonomous Systems, special issue on Autonomous Grasping %V 60 %P 337 - 346 %G eng %N 3 %R 10.1016/j.robot.2011.07.014 %0 Journal Article %J Autonomous Robots [special issue on RSS2010] %D 2011 %T On the Role of Hand Synergies in the Optimal Choice of Grasping Forces %A M Gabiccini %A A. Bicchi %A D Prattichizzo %A M. Malvezzi %K Haptics %K Robotics %B Autonomous Robots [special issue on RSS2010] %V 31 %P 235 - 252 %G eng %R 10.1007/s10514-011-9244-1 %0 Conference Paper %B XX Congresso Aimeta %D 2011 %T Structural Properties of Compliant Grasps with Underactuated Robotic Hands %A M Gabiccini %A E. Farnioli %A M. Malvezzi %A A. Bicchi %K Haptics %K Robotics %B XX Congresso Aimeta %C Bologna, Italy %8 September, 12 %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems %D 2010 %T On motion and force controllability of grasping hands with postural synergies %A D Prattichizzo %A M. Malvezzi %A A. Bicchi %K Haptics %K Robotics %B Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems %C Zaragoza, Spain %8 June %G eng