Fast grasp contact computation for a serial robot

A system comprising:

• a robotic hand having a plurality of fingers each with a plurality of links, wherein each finger is configured to moves in a different plurality of parallel 2D curl planes;
• and
• a controller in electrical communication with the robotic hand and each of the fingers, wherein the controller is configured for:
• receiving a set of input information, including the commanded grasp pose, a first set of information describing the kinematics of the serial robot, and a second set of information describing the position in 3D space of the object to be grasped by the serial robot;
• calculating using the received set of input information, for each of the plurality of parallel 2D curl planes for each of the fingers, a set of contact points of the links with a surface of a three-dimensional (3D) object to be grasped by the hand;
• calculating a set of joint angles for each of the fingers, for each of the parallel 2D curl planes, using a corresponding one of the sets of contact points;
• and
• executing a control action with respect to the motion of the fingers using the sets of joint angles to thereby establish the commanded grasp pose, including selecting and commanding an optimal set of the calculated sets of joint angles using a calibrated criteria recording the sets of joint angles via a memory device of the controller.

A method comprising:

• receiving, via a controller, a set of input information, including a commanded grasp pose for a serial robot, a first set of information describing the kinematics of the serial robot, and a second set of information describing the position in three-dimensional (3D) space of a 3D object to be grasped by the serial robot in the commanded grasp pose;
• decomposing motion of the serial robot into two orthogonal motions, including a first motion in one of a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) curl planes and a second motion oriented above the 2D curl planes;
• calculating, using the received set of input information and the decomposed motion, for the plurality of parallel 2D curl planes of the serial robot, a set of contact points of the serial robot with a surface of the 3D object needed for the serial robot to achieve the commanded grasp pose;
• calculating a plurality of sets of required joint angles between a pair of links of the serial robot using the set of contact points, with one of the sets of required joint angles for each of the parallel 2D curl planes;
• and
• executing a control action with respect to the motion of the serial robot using the required joint angle, including selecting and commanding an optimal set of the calculated sets of required joint angles using a calibrated criteria, to thereby establish the commanded grasp pose.