Dexterity Through Rolling: Manipulation of Unknown Objects

The nonholonomy exhibited by kinematic systems consisting of bodies rolling on top of each other can be used to the purpose of building dexterous mechanisms with a minimum hardware complication. Such desirable an engineering feature can be fully exploited, however, only if the capability of planning and controlling rolling motions of arbitrary objects is achieved. In this paper we present recent advances of both theoretical and experimental nature towards realizing a robot gripper for manipulation of objects whose shape is not known a priori, but is reconstructed as manipulation proceeds.