Robotic grasping of complex objects without full geometrical knowledge of the shape

This paper describes a control method for searching suitable gripping points on the outline of generic shapes. It is aimed at robotic grasping tasks where no full geometrical knowledge of the shape is assumed. We first describe the method for a range of 2D generic shapes and then instantiate the method for pick and place operations on known shapes. The algorithms are run on the shape as it appears on the computer screen directly from a vision system. Virtual robotic fingers and associated sensors are then configured and positioned on the screen with three variables being simultaneously controlled. When the control systems reach a steady state, information about virtual finger position and orientation are then used to drive the manipulator.