Graphical visualization of contact forces and hand movements during in-hand manipulation

Abstract

The paper presents a tool to graphically display the contact forces applied by the fingers of a robotic hand when doing grasping and in-hand manipulation. The forces are computed in two ways, on one side, directly using the measurements of tactile forces in the fingertips and, on the other, using the torques applied by the motors in the finger joints. The implemented tool also allows to command and move the real robotic hand by specifying the complete hand configuration or any single joint, and see graphically the hand simulation. Real results are shown using the Allegro hand with tactile sensors WTS-FT.