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I. INTRODUCTION
In the pursuit of developing ever more capable robotic
graspers, researchers have sought to match the remarkable
dexterity of the human hand through mechanical means. A Fig. 1. The roller grasper prototype
taxonomy for evaluating the dexterity requirements for an
array of grasping tasks is presented in [1], in which the human hand. The resulting robotic hands, while mechanically
tasks requiring the most dexterity are both prehensile and capable, have not found applications outside of the research
within-hand. These are manipulations in which contact forces lab due to their cost, sophisticated sensing and control
from the hand alone are used to grasp and stabilize the requirements, and the sheer complexity of programming
object, and where motion of the object is generated from the them to perform within-hand manipulation.
modulation of the contact forces between the hand elements Another approach has been to focus on achieving grasping
and the grasped object. A robotic hand with the ability and manipulation capabilities with fewer actuated DoF such
to perform within-hand manipulation possesses the ability as [10], [11], and [12]. Many robotic hands also utilize
to transition from the initial grasp configuration to other under-actuated fingers in order for the hand to passively
grasp configurations, for example, to establish a more secure conform to the shape of the objects being grasped such as
grasp by engaging object surfaces unavailable in the initial [13] and [14]. The use of under-actuated fingers provides
grasp orientation. Theoretical foundations for manipulation increased grasp stability at the cost of reduced controllability,
of objects using multiple points of contact are established in making within-hand manipulation more challenging. Within-
[2], [3], and [4]. hand manipulation using under-actuated fingers is an area of
An extensive review of robotic hand designs in the past ongoing research, with recent examples provided by [15] and
century is presented in [5]. Only a fraction of these hands [16].
have the capacity to perform within-hand manipulation tasks. Highly non-anthropomorphic approaches to within-hand
The Stanford/JPL hand [2] and Utah/MIT hand [6] are manipulation have also been explored such as [17]. The
among the earliest robotic hands possessing within-hand incorporation of actuated conveyor belts was examined in
manipulation capabilities. Because the human hand possesses [18] in order to enhance manipulation capabilities of a
the dexterity to perform within-hand manipulation, attempts robotic grasper. This concept was further explored in recent
have been made to replicate this ability by replicating its works such as [19], [20], [21], and [22]. Conveyor surfaces
structure. Anthropomorphic hands, such as [7], [8], and [9], (or, more generically, “active surfaces”) allow the graspers to
approximate the number of degrees of freedom (DoF) of the impart motion to grasped objects without substantial modifi-
This research was supported, in part, by the Stanford Interdisciplinary
cation of the grasp pose. In these embodiments the conveyor
Graduate Fellowship. orientations are fixed, limiting object motion availability. In
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
some sense our work generalizes these in that we explore
2 Dexterity Systems, LLC
3 Department of Computer Science, Stanford University
imparting motion within a grasp by using active surfaces, in
shenliy@stanford.edu, austin@dexterity.systems, our case rotating cylinders, that can be placed against and
jerome.nowak@stanford.edu, jks@cs.stanford.edu oriented with respect to a grasped object.
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Fig. 2. Modular roller finger in the vertical configuration (left) and
horizontal configuration (right). Locations of joint axes are shown in red.
Fig. 4. 3D Kinematics. Relevant notations are given Table II. Joint angles
for fingers 2 and 3 are defined similarly to finger 1, relative to local frames.
Frame G is fixed to the wrist, and Ai , Bi , Ci are the frames of the links in
finger i. Here θB1 /A1 = −θB2 /A2 = θB3 /A3 = 90◦ .
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TABLE I TABLE III
P HYSICAL D IMENSIONS S PHERE M ANIPULATION D O F VS . ROLLER P IVOT A NGLE
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TABLE IV
of a sphere. A sequence from this simulation is shown in
R EFERENCE F RAME T RANSFORMATIONS
Fig. 6. If the no-slip condition is maintained at the contact
surfaces of fingers 1 and 2, the only translation modality
From To Homogeneous
frame frame transformation matrix available for TZ movement is rolling up and down. To
restrict rolling motion to be around X, the contact points of
RYG (θA1 /G ) −d1 G XG
G
G A1 A1 M =
0 0 0 1
fingers 1 and 2 are always symmetrical about the Y -Z plane.
Therefore, a translation TZ induces a rotation RX . The
RZG (π)RYG (θA2 /G ) d2 G XG
G
G A2 A2 M = magnitude of RX is inversely proportional to the effective
0 0 0 1
RZG (−π/2)RYG (θA3 /G ) d3 G YG
rolling motion radius, i.e. the distance between the contact
G
G A3 A3 M = point with finger 1 or 2, and the axis going through D and
0 0 0 1
Ai
RXA (θBi /Ai ) a Ai ZAi
parallel to X. Thus a smaller effective radius results in more
Ai Bi Bi M = i
rotation RX per unit translation TZ .
0 0 0 1
Bi
RZB (θCi /Bi ) b Bi XBi + c Bi YBi
In the simulated sequence shown Fig. 6, the rollers of
Bi Ci Ci M = i
fingers 1 and 2 translate the sphere from its initial pose (Fig.
0 0 0 1
6a) a distance of +∆y along Y while finger 3 provides
stabilization (Fig. 6b). The roller of finger 3 is then used to
G roll the sphere up along the surfaces of fingers 1 and 2 a
U distance of +∆z and an angle ∆θx,1 (Fig. 6c). The effective
in frame Ci can be expressed in frame G: =
C 1 radius R1 of this rolling motion is displayed on the figure
G Ai Bi
i
U as an orange circle. The rollers of fingers 1 and 2 are once
Ai M Bi M Ci M . Let D be a spherical object of radius
1 again used to translate the sphere a distance of −∆y along
R and center D contained within the workspace. Assuming
Y (Fig. 6d). Finally, the roller of finger 3 is used to roll
D is within the grasper workspace, contact between D and
the sphere a distance of −∆z along Z, with effective radius
roller Ci is expressed as:
R2 < R1 and angle −∆θx,2 (Fig. 6e). All throughout this
kZBi × (Ci − D)k = r + R (1) motion, θAi /G,i∈[1,3] are adjusted accordingly. The sphere’s
center has returned to its original position, but has turned an
where angle of ∆θx,f inal = (1/R1 − 1/R2 )∆z < 0. This allows
Ci T the effective rolling radius for TZ movement to be changed
= GAi M A MB
B
i
C
i
M 0 0 0 1 (2)
1 i i
independent of TY for successive up/down motions, thereby
Furthermore, assuming there is no slip, the angles of roller creating a nonholonomic circuit where the sphere may be
Ci and object D can be computed using the no-slip condition translated from its initial pose through the circuit, arriving
at their point of contact I: back at the initial cartesian position but with a net change in
rotation RX .
d d
ID∈Ci − ICi ∈D = 0 (3)
dt dt C. Example Two-Finger Manipulation
where ID∈Ci is the point of Ci that is momentarily coincident
with D, and ICi ∈D is the point of D that is momentarily In the HH× configuration, 3-DoF manipulation of a
coincident with Ci , and we choose to compute the derivatives convex object in the X-Z plane is possible using the joints
in the center-of-momentum frame of D (where we assume at A1 , A2 , C1 and C2 . This can be described using (1) and
G is inertial). (3), though the case of a spherical or cylindrical object D can
When θAi /G and θBi /Ai are known, (1) gives a 2D solution be regarded as a 5-bar linkage, whose forward and inverse
space of possible ball positions for each finger, and in kinematics have been explicitly solved in [26] (see Fig. 7).
nondegenerate cases the intersection of all three spaces gives In the interest of implementing these explicit kinematics in
a unique ball position for that configuration. When D is our controller, we adapt the results in [26] to our vector-
known, (1) gives a 1D inverse kinematic solution space for based notations and to the added symmetry of our design.
θAi /G and θBi /Ai , which can be reduced to one or two For known joint angles θA1 /G and θA2 /G we have the forward
discrete joint positions by e.g. imposing θBi /Ai . We further kinematics equation:
discuss the existence of multiple solutions in the case of s
two fingers in III-C. Solving (1) and (3) for all fingers 1 (r + R)2 1
D = (C1 + C2 ) ± (C2 − C1 ) × YG 2
−
allows us to numerically determine joint positions for within- 2 kC2 − C1 k 4
hand translation and rotation of a ball, and determine which (4)
movements will result in slip so as to avoid them. General- A positive sign in (4) has the ball resting on top of the rollers,
izing to manipulating an arbitrary convex shape leaves (3) while a negative sign has it below, held only by friction.
unchanged, and requires a 3D parametric equation of said For a given ball position D, there are two possible joint
shape to adapt (1) as well as considering object orientation. angles at A1 and A2 , given by the law of cosines:
A 3D kinematic simulation showing the manipulation π
configuration V V H was performed in MATLAB in the case θAi /G = ± αi (D) − βi (D) − γ (5)
2
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(a) Original pose (b) Step 1: +TY (c) Step 2: +TZ , +RX (d) Step 3: -TY (e) Step 4: -TZ , -RX
Fig. 6. Side view of 3D kinematic simulation demonstrating within-hand manipulation of a sphere. The path of the sphere center is shown by the red
line segments, and the purple axes are fixed in C3 . The effective radius of the rolling motion involving RX and TZ is given by the orange circle, and is
different between steps 2 and 4, resulting in a net rotation.
with (5), (10) and (11), which allows full 3-DoF planar
motion.
A. Manipulation
All manipulation configurations referenced in Table III
and Fig. 5 were experimentally validated with a range
Fig. 7. 2D Kinematics
of sphere sizes, thus demonstrating fully controlled 6-DoF
manipulation by transitioning between said configurations.
where, with i in {1, 2},
Furthermore, we successfully applied these capabilities to
kCi − Ai k2 − (r + R)2 + kD − Ai k2
nonspherical objects of varying size, hardness and aspect
αi (D) = arccos
2kCi − Ai kkD − Ai k ratio, such as a six-sided die (Fig. 9), a sheet of paper,
(6) the interior surface of a ring (Fig. 8a) or an open top
βi (D) = | atan2 ((D − Ai ) · ZG , (D − Ai ) · XG )| (7) box (Fig. 8b). The V V V configuration was also used to
unscrew a bottle cap, with the threading pushing the cap
γ = atan2 (b, a + c) (8)
p up so it slipped vertically along the inside of the rollers.
kCi − Ai k = (a + c)2 + b2 (9) This pushes the fingers apart while maintaining contact via
Only one set of finger positions provides the most secure force control. Generally speaking, the hand can achieve
grasp with continuous manipulation capabilities. The follow- controlled manipulation of objects with simple geometric
ing constraints narrow down the solutions to a negative sign features (further demonstrated in the complementary video).
in (5) for both fingers, and reduce the workspace D can be For fingertips without continuous rolling capabilities, mo-
in: tions like rotating a ball or turning a threaded object (e.g.
a screw or bottle cap) are typically done by gaiting, which
• viewed from above, the center of gravity of the sphere
involves breaking and re-establishing contact between the
should be between rollers 1 and 2;
fingers and the object. This motion can be complex to
• the fingers should be applying forces toward each other
control, especially in the case of prehensile manipulation.
in order to maintain a secure grasp.
In comparison, the grasper described here is particularly
Equations (4) and (5) give forward and inverse kinematic efficient for this. Manipulation from inside an object is also
relationships between the positions of the fingers and that of a less common modality, which is enabled here by having
the center of the ball. To take into account the rotations of most of the roller perimeter exposed, allowing the grasper to
D, C1 and C2 , we need only write the no-slip condition (3) further extend its manipulation capabilities beyond its size
in this simplified case: limitations by fitting large objects around the outside of the
R θ̇D/G = r(θ̇C1 /B1 − θ̇A1 /G ) + (r + R)θ̇DC1 (10) fingers (e.g. in the case of an open top box).
R θ̇D/G = r(−θ̇C2 /B2 + θ̇A2 /G ) + (r + R)θ̇DC2 (11) B. Grasping
where θDCi is the angle between the vectors XG and Ci −D, In addition to performing within-hand manipulation tasks,
counted positively towards YG . the presence of actively driven rolling fingertips offers ben-
We now have explicitly formulated 3-DoF planar forward efits for grasping objects of different sizes, shapes, and
kinematics with (4), (10) and (11), and inverse kinematics properties. Several of the grasp techniques explored involve
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(a) V V × (b) HH×(box) (c) HH×(regular) (d) HH×(thin) (e) HH×(soft) (f) P P H(regular) (g) P P H(box) (h) HHH
Fig. 8. Other roller configurations (Fig. 8a for manipulation; 8b for manipulation and grasping; the rest for grasping)
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