This paper presents a new formulation of computing three-dimensional (3-D)
frictional form-closure grasps of n robotic fingers. As 3-D form-closure gr
asps involve 6-D wrench space, we first propose a recursive reduction techn
ique to transform the complicated problem in the 6-D space into a simpler 3
-D one. Next, we rewrite the sufficient and necessary condition for form-cl
osure grasps into its equivalent form of two sets of linear inequalities. T
hen, according to the linear inequality theory, the problem is transformed
to searching for a set of points which ensure the inconsistency of each of
the two linear inequality systems. To search for such points, we proposed t
wo methods: The first one is based on testing whether the convex region for
med by each linear inequality system is empty, while the second one relies
on the potential held method. We have implemented the algorithm and confirm
ed their efficiency for the synthesis of 3-D form-closure grasps.