Robot Factors: An Alternative Approach for Closing the Gap in Human versus Robot Manipulation

Abstract

Manipulating human tools reliably would allow robots to perform a diverse set of useful tasks in human environments. However, human tools are often difficult to manipulate with simple robot grippers, particularly given the force requirements for applying the tool. This is often due to the mismatch between the gripper and the tool handle designed based on human factors. Our approach argues for modifying human environments based on robot factors so as to expand the robot’s capabilities or improve the robustness of its existing capabilities. In this paper, we present a case study for applying this approach to robotic tool manipulation. We describe the design of a low-cost universal tool attachment that makes the tool gripper-friendly and demonstrate its utility in grasping, applying, and placing common cleaning tools.

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{xu2014rssw,
  title = {Robot Factors: An Alternative Approach for Closing the Gap in Human versus Robot Manipulation},
  author = {Xu, Zhe and Cakmak, Maya},
  year = {2014},
  booktitle = {RSS Workshop on Human versus Robot Grasping and Manipulation -- How Can We Close the Gap?},
  type = {workshop}
}