A Modular, Accessible, Affordable Dexterity Test for Evaluating the Grasping and Manipulation Capabilities of Robotic Grippers and Hands

摘要

Despite the plethora of studies focusing on the design and development of dexterous robotic grippers and hands, researchers have not been able to quantify dexterity due to the lack of well defined measures or tests. Human dexterity on the other hand, is generally measured by employing various hand function tests. This work is inspired from these tests, proposing a new modular, affordable, accessible test for evaluating the grasping and manipulation capabilities of robotic end effectors. More precisely, the test allows for a quantification of the end-effectors' ability to perform various tasks effectively and irrespectively of the individual design parameters. The test rig proposed in this study combines the features of multiple dexterity tests originally developed for humans. The test quantifies dexterity through a weighted sum of task execution success, speed, and accuracy components that results to a dexterity score ranging from 0 (simplistic, nondexterous system) to 1 (human-like system). It should also be noted that dexterity can be evaluated assessing the efficiency of either the robotic hardware or the robotic perception system.