Bridging the Gap: One shot grasp synthesis approach

Optimal grasp synthesis has traditionally been solved in two steps: determining optimal grasping points according to a specific quality criterion and then determining how to shape the hand to produce these grasping points. Generating optimal grasps depends on the position of contact points as much as the configuration of the robot hand and it would hence be desirable to solve this in a single step. This paper takes advantage of new development in non-linear optimization and formulates the problem of grasp synthesis as a single constrained optimization problem, generating grasps that are at the same time feasible for the hand's kinematics and optimal according to a force related quality measure. The approach is validated on the 9 degrees of freedom hand of the iCub humanoid robot.