Robot hands and the mechanics of manipulation (T. Mason and J.K. Salisbury, Jr. (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T., 1985) [Book Reviews]

The reviewer calls "Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation" a preliminary exploration of the mechanics of dexterous manipulation. It isb ased almost entirely on the Ph.D. dissertations of the two authors. That of Dr. Salisbury is dated 1982, while the date of Dr. Mason's dissertation was not evident. (prehension) is the important part of Mason's thesis. The book is not intended as a text for a University course and would fa11 far short of being an aid to designing a robot hand. It is a presentation of fundamentals of the mechanics of manipulation, which is certainly an immature science. It exemplifies the problem that an individual faces on entering the robotics area: there are either the texts that describe the capabilities and expectations of robotic automation and are written for managers or there are the texts such as this that develop the basic science and are written for researchers. This is a clear indication of the immaturity of the subject. A note of comment about the editing is ino rder. The M.I.T. Press, as publisher, states that the format was intended to reduce the time between the editorial process and the final publication. However, the introduction was written in 1984, the most recent reference cited was dated August 1983 (in a paper contained in the appendix to Section I) and the book publication date is 1985. There is not much further evidence of the rush to publish in that few errors were found. One error is that while reference 11 was cited on page 16, it could not be found in the list of references, and another is that the top figure on page 21 does not show the twist t6.