The Mechanics of Robot Grasping

Elon Rimon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. He has also been a Visiting Associate Faculty member at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Rimon was a finalist for the best paper award at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 1994 and 1996, for the Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics in 2014 and 2016, and awarded best paper presentation at the Robotics Science and Systems Conference in 2013. Joel Burdick is the the Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, where he has received the NSF Presidential Young Investigator award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and the Feynman fellowship. He has been a finalist for the best paper award for the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 1993, 1999, 2000, 2005, and 2016. Professor Burdick received the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough award in 2011.

• 1. Introduction and overview; Part I. Basic Geometry of the Grasping Process: 2. Rigid-body configuration space; 3. Configuration space tangent and cotangent vectors; 4. Rigid body equilibrium grasps; 5. A catalog of equilibrium grasps; Part II. Frictionless Rigid Body Grasps and Stances: 6. Introduction to secure grasps; 7. First-order immobilizing grasps; 8. Second-order immobilizing grasps; 9. Minimal immobilizing grasps; 10. Multi-finger caging grasps; 11. Frictionless hand supported stances under gravity; Part III. Frictional Rigid-Body Grasps, Fixtures, and Stances: 12. Wrench resistant grasps; 13. Grasp quality functions; 14. Hand supported stances under gravity – Part I; 15. Hand supported stances under gravity – Part II; Part IV. Grasping Mechanisms: 16. The kinematics and mechanics of grasping mechanisms; 17. Grasp manipulability; 18. Hand mechanism compliance; Appendices; Index.

'The Mechanics of Robot Grasping, by two of the world's leading experts, fills an important gap in the literature by providing the first comprehensive survey of the mathematical tools needed to model the physics of grasping. The book uses configuration space to consistently characterize equilibrium, immobilizing, and caging grasps, and clearly conveys important points such as the distinction between first-order and second-order form closure. The book also contains new material on the effects of gravity, compliance, and hand mechanism design. Grasping remains a Grand Challenge for robots and this book provides the solid foundation for progress for students and researchers in the years ahead.' Ken Goldberg, University of California, Berkeley