The author addresses the problem of finding the pose of an object grasped by a hand. The problem can be stated simply: given a hand grasping an object, and given a model of that object, determine the position and orientation of the object with respect to the hand. The method described uses only joint angle and torque sensing, and is able to localize two-dimensional objects grasped by the Utah-MIT dextrous hand.>

The authors describe a fully implemented computational architecture (CONDOR) that controls the Utah-MIT dexterous hand and other complex robots. The architecture derives its power from the highly efficient real-time environment provided for its control processors, coupled with a development host that allows flexible program development. By mapping the memory of a dedicated group of processors into the address space of a host computer, efficient sharing of system resources between them is possible. The software is characterized by a few simple design concepts but provides the facilities out of which more powerful utilities such as a multiprocessor pseudo-terminal emulator, a transparent and fast file server, and a flexible symbolic debugger could be constructed.>

A fast architecture for controlling the Utah-MIT hand and other such complex robots is reviewed. These robots are characterized by a large number of joints and consequently demand powerful computer architectures to be controlled and utilized effectively. The version of the architecture derives its power from a novel bus-to-bus adaptor to couple a development host running a time-sharing operating system with a multimicroprocessor system devoted to real-time computations. The software is characterized by a few simple design concepts but provides the facilities out of which powerful utilities like a multiprocessor pseudoterminal emulator, a transparent fast file server, and a truly flexible powerful symbolic debugger could be constructed.>

This paper provides an overview of the hardware and software systems developed for the Utah-MIT dextrous hand. It builds on the issues raised in an earlier paper [Siegel et al. 1985]. An innovative task scheduling system and a new implementation of our message-passing based inter-task communication system are discussed. Finally, an application program using this system to implement hand-level primitive operations is presented.

The design, construction, and performance of a tactile sensor and a thermal sensor that can be combine into one compact device with both modalities is discussed. The tactile sensing portion is composed of an 8×8 array of force sensing cells with 1.8 mm center to center spacing. Heat transduction is measured by a 4×4 array of temperature sensors. A number of these devices will be mounted on the Utah-MIT four-fingered dextrous hand, providing a unique research environment for pursuing sensor driven control strategies.

This paper presents the computational architecture for the Utah-MIT hand, and discusses design issues encountered in its hardware and software development. The large number of linkages, actuators, and sensors offers a potentially severe computational burden for control; a multiprocessor hardware configuration has been developed to distribute this computation. In the interests of efficiency, minimal operating systems were devised for each processor which nevertheless were made sufficiently general for task scheduling, intertask communication, and debugging. This computational architecture is a general system which is potentially useful for other robotics applications.