Objective of the research project MUMA
The general objective of the project is to develop procedures that allow the automatic generation of compatible movements by several grasping elements (multi-hand system) in order to hold and relocate objects based on a single common goal, achieving in this way a greater efficiency and versatility in the grasping and manipulation tasks. This objective is oriented as much to industrial robotics applications, endowed with very specific tweezers, as to service robotics, in which humanoids using two anthropomorphic hands will undeniably play a primary role. The general objective includes the following specific ones:
1. To develop methods and algorithms to determine automatically multi-hand grasps that satisfy some given conditions. This refers equally to tasks that necessarily require more than one hand and to those that are simply improved by the use of several hands. Also, it includes the cases in which each hand performs an "independent grasp" (each hand itself performs a valid grasp of the object), and those in which the hands exert "collaborative grasps" (each hand provides contacts that would be unable to hold the object without the contacts of the others).
2. To determine automatically the sequential actions needed to manipulate objects for a given goal, using more than one hand and satisfying certain conditions.
3. To identify and establish quality measures and criteria for evaluating multi-hand grasps. Some criteria already exist from the viewpoint of the object, as well as for a single grasping element; but multi-hand systems will certainly require the development of new measures that address the particular situation considered.
4. To implement a two-hand system for the experimental validation of the procedures, methods and algorithms developed in the framework of the project.
