The ultimate goal of the research on articulated hands in general is to use them to do tasks in a way similar to that of humans. A systematic analysis reveals that the day-to-day tasks of humans include some common task primitives such as twist, turn, insert, pullout, push, pull, lift, and place. During each of these operations, the grasp dynamic behavior plays an important role and more so in
... [Show full abstract] tasks involving manipulation of delicate objects. Introduced in this paper is the concept of the grasp admittance center, a notion that aims to make an articulated grasp exhibit a directionally decoupled dynamic behavior. An admittance center is conceptualized as the superposition of compliance, accommodation, and mobility centers in a desired coordinate frame. A grasp with an admittance center will have three useful features: stability, decoupled force motion relation, and decoupled time-response. These features are also useful to other closed kinematic chain robotic devices such as the cooperating multiarms and multilegged mobile robots engaged in non-quasistatic (dynamic) manipulation tasks. As a preparation to demonstrate the concept experimentally, a method of synthesizing articulated grasps so as to achieve an admittance center has been developed as well as a method of choosing appropriate location and related parameters for the center. The sensitivity of the center to its parameter imprecision has also been analyzed.