Kinematic Mapping and Calibration of the Thumb Motions for Teleoperating a Humanoid Robot Hand

Mapping and calibration from a human hand to a robot hand pose a challenge due to their differences in kinematic structures. This paper uses the CyberGlove as the input device for telemanipulating an object with the thumb and the index finger of the Shadow Dexterous HandTM, with the focus not only on the position but also on the orientation of the thumb fingertip because it is found through experiments conducted on the Shadow Hand that the calibration of tip position alone can lead to unacceptable grasping postures. This paper develops an experiment protocol and proposes a nonlinear optimization formulation that makes the normals of the surfaces of the thumb and index fingertips within the friction cone while subject to fingertip position constraint. The results are verified to be accurate enough to conduct the telemanipulation.