A taxonomy of human grasping behavior suitable for transfer to robotic hands

As a first step towards transferring human grasping capabilities to robots, we analyzed the grasping behavior of human subjects. We derived a taxonomy in order to adequately represent the observed strategies. During the analysis of the recorded data, this classification scheme helped us to obtain a better understanding of human grasping behavior. We will provide support for our hypothesis that humans exploit compliant contact between the hand and the environment to compensate for uncertainty. We will also show a realization of the resulting grasping strategies on a real robot. It is our belief that the detailed analysis of human grasping behavior will ultimately lead to significant increases in robot manipulation and dexterity.