Stable Grasps by Path Planning Using Artificial Fields

This paper proposes a new method for grasping an object positioned in a cluttered workspace. The grasping of an object usually relies on the analysis of its contour in order to determine the contact points for the fingers of the gripper. The planning of the positioning of the real gripper in the workspace at the chosen points is often considered as a separate problem. The method proposed in this paper plans the placing of the gripper onto the contour of the objects thereby considering the size and shape of the fingers. A collision-free grasp for a gripper is found by simulating an attractive motion of the gripper towards the object until a configuration is found that satisfies the stability requirement. The technique relies on artificial fields defined over the workspace which are used to guide the motion of the gripper and to evaluate grasp configurations. Appropriate strategies are used to overcome local minima during the search. 1 Introduction Most traditional grasp planners rely o..