Novel fingertip equipped with soft skin and hard nail for dexterous multi-fingered robotic manipulation

This paper describes a novel fingertip equipped with a soft elastic cover and a hard nail. The soft elastic cover of the fingertip enables changing friction coefficient at the contact with an object. It also enables detecting change of contact type with an object while manipulating it: the fingertip contact with a flat surface and with a convex sharp edge. The solid nail enables detecting a very small step of sub-millimeter on a smooth surface.

[1]  Tsutomu Hasegawa,et al.  Detection and measurement of fingertip slip in multi-fingered precision manipulation with rolling contact , 2001, Conference Documentation International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems. MFI 2001 (Cat. No.01TH8590).

[2]  Toshio Tsuji,et al.  Scale-Dependent Grasp , 1996 .

[3]  N. Aisaka,et al.  Robot hand for handling cloth , 1991, Fifth International Conference on Advanced Robotics 'Robots in Unstructured Environments.

[4]  Suguru Arimoto,et al.  Robotic pinching by means of a pair of soft fingers with sensory feedback , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[5]  Hisashi Osumi,et al.  Dynamic contact sensing of soft planar fingers with tactile sensors , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[6]  Kazuo Tanie,et al.  Tactile sensor based manipulation of an unknown object by a multifingered hand with rolling contact , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Intrinsic contact sensing for soft fingers , 1990, Proceedings., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[8]  Katsuhiko Nakamura,et al.  Instantaneous evaluation of friction based on ARTC tactile sensor , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[9]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Hands for dexterous manipulation and robust grasping: a difficult road toward simplicity , 2000, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[10]  Yanmei Li,et al.  A review of modeling of soft-contact fingers and stiffness control for dextrous manipulation in robotics , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[11]  Hiroyuki Shinoda,et al.  Wireless tactile sensing element using stress-sensitive resonator , 2000 .

[12]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  An overview of dexterous manipulation , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[13]  Shigeki Sugano,et al.  Human symbiotic robot design based on division and unification of functional requirements , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).