AN INSTRUMENTED GLOVE FOR GRASP SPECIFICATION IN VIRTUAL-REALITY-BASED POINT-AND-DIRECT TELEROBOTICS

Hand posture and force, which define aspects of the way an object is g rasped, are features of robotic manipulation, A means for specifying t hese grasping ''flavors'' has been developed that uses an instrumented glove equipped with joint and force sensors, The new grasp specificat ion system will be used at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn Sta te) in a Virtual Reality based Point-and-Direct (VR-PAD) robotics impl ementation, Here, an operator gives directives to a robot in the same natural way that human may direct another. Phrases such as ''put that there'' cause the robot to define a grasping strategy and motion strat egy to complete the task on its own, In the VR-PAD concept, pointing i s done using virtual tools such that an operator can appear to graphic ally grasp real items in live video, Rather than requiring full duplic ation of forces and kinesthetic movement throughout a task as is requi red in manual telemanipulation, hand posture and force are now specifi ed only once, The grasp parameters then become object flavors, The rob ot maintains the specified force and hand posture flavors for an objec t throughout the task in handling the real workpiece or item of intere st, In the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Laboratory at Penn State, hand posture and force data were collected for manipulating bri cks and other items that require varying amounts of force at multiple pressure points, The feasibility of measuring desired grasp characteri stics was demonstrated for a modified Cyberglove impregnated with Forc e-Sensitive Resistor (FSR) (pressure sensors in the fingertips, A join t/force model relating the parameters of finger articulation and press ure to various lifting tasks was validated for the instrumented ''wire d'' glove, Operators using such a modified glove may ultimately be abl e to configure robot grasping tasks in environments involving hazardou s waste remediation, flexible manufacturing, space operations and othe r flexible robotics applications, In each case, the VR-PAD approach wi ll finesse the computational and delay problems of real-time multiple- degree-of-freedom force feedback telemanipulation.