Dynamic Coordination of a Multiple Robotic System with Point Contact

This paper treats two fundamental problems of a multiple robotic system: grasp planning and the determination of coordinated control laws with point contact models. First, using the dual notions of grasp stability and manipulability and a procedure we have previously developed for task modeling we define the structure grasp quality measures These measures are then integrated to devise a grasp planing algorithm. Second, based on the assumption of point contact models, we develop a computed-torque-like control algorithm for the coordinated manipulation of a multifingered robot hand. This control algorithm, which takes into account both the dynamics of the object and the dynamics of the manipulators, is computationally effective and can be easily generalized to allow rolling motion of the object with respect to the fingertip.