Region-based grasp generation

A robotic grasp generation system comprising:

• an interface device for receiving input from a human user;
• and
• a computer having a processor and memory, said computer communicating with the interface device and configured to generate a grasp database,
• where the human user provides, using the interface device, an object model including three-dimensional (3D) shape data for an object to be grasped, and a gripper model including 3D shape data and actuation parameters for a gripper,
• and the human user provides input specifications including definition of one or more target grasp regions on the object, and a required number of grasps to compute for each of the target grasp regions, where each target grasp region is a three-dimensional (3D) subpart of the object defined by techniques including selecting a component of the object model using graphical user interface (GUI) software displaying the object model on the interface device and selecting a 3D volumetric sub-region of one or more components of the object model using the GUI software displaying the object model,
• and where the computer is configured to generate a grasp database, including;
• selecting one of the target grasp regions on the object as defined by the user;
• performing an iterative optimization for the selected target grasp region, where the iterative optimization converges to a grasp having a locally-maximum quality while satisfying constraint equations which define surface contact between the gripper and the selected target grasp region of the object without gripper-object interference;
• outputting data defining the grasp to the grasp database;
• repeatedly performing the iterative optimization and outputting the data defining the grasp until the required number of grasps is met;
• and
• selecting another one of the target grasp regions and repeatedly performing the iterative optimization to compute the required number of grasps until all of the target grasp regions are used.