Grasping and Manipulation in Humanoid Robotics

Humanoid robotics is attracting the interest of many research groups world-wide. In particular, developing humanoids requires the implementation of manipulation capabilities, which is still a most complex problem in robotics. This paper presents an overview of current activities in the development of humanoid robots, with special focus on manipulation. Then we discuss our current approach to the design and development of anthropomorphic sensorized hand and of anthropomorphic control and sensory-motor coordination schemes. Current achievements in the development of a robotic human hand prosthesis are described, together with preliminary experimental results, as well as in the implementation of biologically-inspired schemes for control and sensory-motor co-ordination in manipulation, derived from models of well-identified human brain areas.