1988 Reports

An Integrated System for Dextrous Manipulation

Allen, Peter K.; Michelman, Paul; Roberts, Kenneth S.

This paper describes an integrated system for dextrous manipulation using a Utah-MIT hand that allows one to look at the higher levels of control in a number of grasping and manipulation tasks. The system consists of a number of low-level system primitives for grasping, integrated hand and robotic arm movement, tactile sensors mounted on the fingertips, sensing primitives to utilize joint position, tendon force and tactile array feedback, and a high-level programming environment that allows task level scripts to be created for grasping and manipulation tasks. A number of grasping and manipulation tasks are described that have been implemented with this system.