Grasp and transport control for a chopsticks-type robot using work done on an object

Recently, demand for robots that can work with humans has been increasing in several fields including medicine and social welfare. Such robots are required to have a high degree of safety and high operability. Therefore, the use of a pair of chopsticks has been focused on as an operation performed by the human hand. In this paper, we first propose a method of work control to maintain a constant amount of work done on an object. Next, the method of work control and a method for changing the control mode based on position and force errors, called the “SCOME method”, are applied to a two-fingered robot hand composed of elastic joints, which is called a chopsticks-type robot. Furthermore, a grasp and transport control experiment is conducted using the chopsticks-type robot to manipulate cylindrical objects. The experimental results illustrate the validity of grasp and transport control and work control for the chopsticks-type robot.