The Karlsruhe dextrous hand: grasp planning, programming and real-time control

In this paper the framework of an intelligent control system of a multi-finger robot hand is described, that is especially tailored for sensor-based object handling and assembly. The research has concerned with the Karlsruhe dextrous hand, a modular three-finger hand with 9 degrees of freedom, independent finger modules and integrated sensors. The total system structure consists of three embedded subsystems, with a planning and supervisory system on the top, which has a blackboard-like architecture to exchange information with a distributed real-time control system that provides force/position control strategies for dextrous grasping and manipulating of arbitrary objects. A programming and simulation system supports the object/task-based description of all robot and gripper actions required to perform a specific operation