Manipulation of the grasped object is de ned as the ability of the mechanical ende ector to create an instantaneous motion of the object with respect to a xed reference frame (e.g. palm reference frame). This class of manipulation is usually referred to as the ne manipulation whereas a collection of all these instantaneous motions of the object is referred to as the gross manipulation. This pap...

A natural and intuitive method is proposed to help a user manipulate an object in a virtual environment. The method does not need to assign special properties to the object faces in advance and does not require special hardware. Instead, it uses only the visual constraints of motion among object faces that are dynamically selected by a real-time collision detection method while the user manipul...

A good model of the mechanics of a task is a resource for a robot, just as actuators and sensors are resources. The e ective use of frictional, gravitational, and dynamic forces can substitute for extra actuators; the expectation derived from a good model can minimize sensing requirements. Despite this, most robot systems attempt to dominate or nullify task mechanics, rather than exploit them. ...

To explore the neural mechanisms related to representation of the manipulation dynamics of objects, we performed whole-brain fMRI while subjects balanced an object in stable and highly unstable states and while they balanced a rigid object and a flexible object in the same unstable state, in all cases without vision. In this way, we varied the extent to which an internal model of the manipulati...

This paper presents a method to solve the regrasping problem in the context of object manipulation with a mechanical hand. This problem is met during an object manipulation when one finger reaches the boundary of its workspace or when a collision between parts occurs. Our method synthesizes a new feasible grasp when this problem appears by a sequence of grasps involving the fourth free finger. ...

Vibratory manipulation is the use of repeated impacts, typically at high frequency and low amplitude, to manipulate objects. Although this sort of manipulation is commonly used, e.g. in parts feeding systems, there has been relatively little work on formally analyzing the mechanics. In this paper, we focus on manipulating a planar slider repeatedly tapped by a vibrating manipulator. We find tha...

Personal service robots will need to understand semantic object relationships and task context in order to assist humans in their everyday lives. This paper will demonstrate a technique using keywords, spatial relationships, colors, and other contextual information to assist in the mobile manipulation and object recognition tasks. Preliminary results using a mobile manipulation platform are als...

A tactile sense is key to advanced robotic grasping and manipulation. By touching an object it is possible to measure contact properties such as contact forces, torques, and contact position. From these, we can estimate object properties such as geometry, stiffness, and surface condition. This information can then be used to control grasping or manipulation, to detect slip, and also to create o...

In this paper, we introduce an abstract representation for manipulation actions that is based on the evolution of the spatial relations between involved objects. Object tracking in RGBD streams enables straightforward and intuitive ways to model spatial relations in 3D space. Reasoning in 3D overcomes many of the limitations of similar previous approaches, while providing significant flexibilit...

1 S.YUE is a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Abstract It is difficult for robots to handle a vibrating deformable object. Even for human beings it is a high-risk operation to, for example, insert a vibrating linear object into a small hole. However, fast manipulation using a robot arm is not just a dream; it may be achieved if some important features of the vibration a...