Fast grasp tool design: From force to form closure

We present a novel technique which integrates automatic, part centered design of customized fingertips with a grasp planning stage for arbitrary parts of an assembly process. Starting with a set of CAD models of parts in an assembly sequence, force closure grasps are generated for each part in a sampling process. By employing the sampled force closure grasp positions in the second stage, the fingertip shape model is adapted to obtain form closure grasps at the specific grasp locations on the part. This approach significantly reduces the process time of designing fingers. Furthermore, the method increases the robustness of the fingers grasp for precise assemblies. The proposed fast generic automated finger design (FGAFD) method is able to design fingers for various geometrically complex workpieces. The designed fingers are experimentally verified. The results are discussed in detail and benchmarked against existing approaches.