Sonoma State University
CS Colloquium | March 25, 2004

Multifingered Grasping: From Grasp Reflexes To Context-Dependent Strategies

Jefferson Coelho, Sonoma State University Computer and Engineering Science Graduate Program & Agilent, Santa Rosa

Stevenson Hall 1300
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

Grasping plays an important role in human cognitive development, helping infantsdevelop primitive problem solving strategies and aiding the onset of perceptual categorization. Grasp controllers can be suitable for implementation on robotic devices. Grasp controllers are initially defined as simple grasp primitives, the first step in the bootstrap procedure leading to context-dependent strategies. Physical objects can be autonomously defined by the robot, based on the history of grasp interactions. Theresulting grasp controller is being implemented in Nasa's robonaut, a robotic helper for astronauts.