Grasping versus Knitting: a Geometric Perspective

TL;DR

This paper explores the geometric aspects of grasping and knitting, analyzing how physical contact and movement are managed in natural organisms and robotic systems to improve understanding and design.

Contribution

It provides a geometric perspective on grasping and knitting, linking biological solutions to robotic manipulation strategies.

Findings

Natural solutions enable rapid and efficient contact management.

Geometric analysis reveals underlying principles of grasping.

Insights inform robotic manipulation design.

Abstract

Grasping an object is a matter of first moving a prehensile organ at some position in the world, and then managing the contact relationship between the prehensile organ and the object. Once the contact relationship has been established and made stable, the object is part of the body and it can move in the world. As any action, the action of grasping is ontologically anchored in the physical space while the correlative movement originates in the space of the body. Evolution has found amazing solutions that allow organisms to rapidly and efficiently manage the relationship between their body and the world. It is then natural that roboticists consider taking inspiration of these natural solutions, while contributing to better understand their origin.