Japan STA Program: Control of the Contact Forces of a Robotic Hand

该奖项将为斯坦福大学Prasad Akella博士与Kazuo Tanie博士在日本机械工程实验室（MEL）进行为期22个月的合作研究提供补充支持。Akella和Tanie将应用Akella博士的软指尖行为模型，以便更好地操作Tanie开发的三指机器人手。当机器人手被要求抓住一个物体时，控制它的接触力是相当困难的。Akella发现柔软的指尖通过耗散能量来稳定机器人手，并改善其动态性能。为了克服Tanie机械手的接触力不稳定，团队将开发力控制软件，以补充Akella的软指尖机械设计解决方案。开发这样一种有效的方法来实施力控制的机械手可以导致更先进的机器人，可以用于更复杂的任务，在工业以及远程设置，如海底或太空。

This award will provide supplementary support to enable Dr. Prasad Akella of Stanford University to conduct collaborative research with Dr. Kazuo Tanie for 22 months at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL) in Japan. Akella and Tanie will apply Dr. Akella's behavior models for soft fingertips in order to better manipulate a three fingered robotic hand which was developed by Tanie. Controlling the contact forces of a robotic hand when it is tasked to grasp an object is quite difficult. Akella has found that soft fingertips stabilize a robotic hand by dissipating energy and improve its dynamic performance. In order to overcome the unstable contact forces of Tanie's robotic hand, the team will develop force control software to complement Akella's mechanical design solution of soft fingertips. Developing such an effective methodology for implementing force control in manipulators can lead to more advanced robots which could be used for more complex tasks in industrial as well as remote settings such as undersea or in space.