A Slip Detection and Correction Strategy for Precision Robot Grasping

This paper presents a grasp force regulation strategy for precision grasps. The strategy makes no assumptions about object properties and surface characteristics, and can be used with a wide range of grippers. It has two components, a slip signal detector that computes the magnitude of slip and a grasping force set point generator that acts on the detector's output. The force set point generator is designed to ensure that slip is eliminated without using excessive force. This is particularly important in several situations like grasping fragile objects or in-hand manipulation of thin small objects. Several experiments were conducted to simulate various grasping scenarios with different objects. Results show that the strategy was very successful in dealing with uncertainty in object mass, surface characteristics, or rigidity. The strategy is also insensitive to robot motion.