Vinicio Tincani

Velvet fingers: A dexterous gripper with active surfaces

Since the introduction of the first prototypes of robotic end-effectors showing manipulation capabilities, much research focused on the design and control of robot hand and grippers. While many studies focus on enhancing the sensing capabilities and motion agility, a less explored topic is the engineering of the surfaces that enable the hand to contact the object. In this paper we present the prototype of the Velvet Fingers smart gripper, a novel concept of end-effector combining the simple mechanics and control of under-actuated devices together with high manipulation possibilities, usually offered only by dexterous robotic hands. This enhancement is obtained thanks to active surfaces, i.e. engineered contact surfaces able to emulate different levels of friction and to apply tangential thrusts to the contacted object. Through the paper particular attention is dedicated to the mechanical implementation, sense drive and control electronics of the device; some analysis on the control algorithms are reported. Finally, the capabilities of the prototype are showed through preliminary grasps and manipulation experiments.

Implementation and control of the Velvet Fingers: A dexterous gripper with active surfaces

Since the introduction of the first prototypes of robotic end-effectors showing manipulation capabilities, much research focused on the design and control of robot hand and grippers. While many studies focus on enhancing the sensing capabilities and motion agility, a less explored topic is the engineering of the surfaces that enable the hand to contact the object. In this paper we present the prototype of the Velvet Fingers smart gripper, a novel concept of end-effector combining the simple mechanics and control of under-actuated devices together with high manipulation possibilities, usually offered only by dexterous robotic hands. This enhancement is obtained thanks to active surfaces, i.e. engineered contact surfaces able to emulate different levels of friction and to apply tangential thrusts to the contacted object. Through the paper particular attention is dedicated to the mechanical implementation, sense drive and control electronics of the device; some analysis on the control algorithms are reported. Finally, the capabilities of the prototype are showed through preliminary grasps and manipulation experiments.

No More Heavy Lifting: Robotic Solutions to the Container Unloading Problem

This article discusses the scientifically and industrially important problem of automating the process of unloading goods from standard shipping containers. We outline some of the challenges barring further adoption of robotic solutions to this problem, ranging from handling a vast variety of shapes, sizes, weights, appearances, and packing arrangements of the goods, through hard demands on unloading speed and reliability, to ensuring that fragile goods are not damaged. We propose a modular and reconfigurable software framework in an attempt to efficiently address some of these challenges. We also outline the general framework design and the basic functionality of the core modules developed. We present two instantiations of the software system on two different fully integrated demonstrators: (1) coping with an industrial scenario, i.e., the automated unloading of coffee sacks with an already economically interesting performance; and (2) a scenario used to demonstrate the capabilities of our scientific and technological developments in the context of medium- to long-term prospects of automation in logistics. We performed evaluations that allowed us to summarize several important lessons learned and to identify future directions of research on autonomous robots for the handling of goods in logistics applications.

The Next Step in Robot Commissioning: Autonomous Picking and Palletizing

So far, autonomous order picking (commissioning) systems have not been able to meet the stringent demands regarding speed, safety, and accuracy of real-world warehouse automation, resulting in reliance on human workers. In this letter, we target the next step in autonomous robot commissioning: automatizing the currently manual order picking procedure. To this end, we investigate the use case of autonomous picking and palletizing with a dedicated research platform and discuss lessons learned during testing in simplified warehouse settings. The main theoretical contribution is a novel grasp representation scheme which allows for redundancy in the gripper pose placement. This redundancy is exploited by a local, prioritized kinematic controller which generates reactive manipulator motions on-the-fly. We validated our grasping approach by means of a large set of experiments, which yielded an average grasp acquisition time of 23.5 at a success rate of 94.7. Our system is able to autonomously carry out simple order picking tasks in a human-safe manner, and as such serves as an initial step toward future commercial-scale in-house logistics automation solutions.

Object recognition and localization for robust grasping with a dexterous gripper in the context of container unloading

The work presented here is embedded in research on an industrial application scenario, namely autonomous shipping-container unloading, which has several challenging constraints: the scene is very cluttered, objects can be much larger than in common table-top scenarios; the perception must be highly robust, while being as fast as possible. These contradicting goals force a compromise between speed and accuracy. In this work, we investigate a state of the art perception system integrated with a dexterous gripper. In particular, we are interested in pose estimation errors from the recognition module and whether these errors can be handled by the abilities of the gripper.

Design of an under-actuated wrist based on adaptive synergies

An effective robotic wrist represents a key enabling element in robotic manipulation, especially in prosthetics. In this paper, we propose an under-actuated wrist system, which is also adaptable and allows to implement different under-actuation schemes. Our approach leverages upon the idea of soft synergies — in particular the design method of adaptive synergies — as it derives from the field of robot hand design. First we introduce the design principle and its implementation and function in a configurable test bench prototype, which can be used to demonstrate the feasibility of our idea. Furthermore, we report on results from preliminary experiments with humans, aiming to identify the most probable wrist pose during the pre-grasp phase in activities of daily living. Based on these outcomes, we calibrate our wrist prototype accordingly and demonstrate its effectiveness to accomplish grasping and manipulation tasks.

Controlling the active surfaces of the Velvet Fingers: Sticky to slippy fingers

Industrial grippers are often used for grasping, while in-hand re-orientation and positioning are dealt with by other means. Contact surface engineering has been recently proposed as a possible mean to introduce dexterity in simple grippers, as in the Velvet Fingers smart gripper, a novel concept of end-effector combining simple under-actuated mechanics and high manipulation possibilities, thanks to conveyors which are built in the finger pads. This paper undergoes the modeling and control of the active conveyors of the Velvet Fingers gripper which are rendered able to emulate different levels of friction and to apply tangential thrusts to the contacted objects. Through the paper particular attention is dedicated to the mechanical implementation, sense drive and control electronics of the device. The capabilities of the prototype are showed in some grasping and manipulation experiments.