The caging configuration design and optimization for planar moving objects using multi-fingered mechanism

Due to the larger number of fingers, and the relative motion between object and fingers, the moving object caging using multi-fingered mechanism is complicated and difficulty. In this paper, a novel algorithm for planar moving objects caging configuration design and optimization using multi-fingered mechanism is proposed. In the proposed algorithm: (1) the lead finger is chosen and controlled to track the caging point nearby the moving object; (2) possible configurations of following fingers are determined according to interconnections of the multi-fingered mechanism; (3) the caging condition is applied to choose effective caging configurations. Compared to existing methods, advantages of the proposed method lie on the simple task mode–‘leader-follower mode’ and low calculation burden. In addition, considering caging is a loose closure strategy with a certain margin, the caging margin, which is the space between the multi-fingered mechanism and the moving target, is introduced and quantified. Moreover, the caging configurations are optimized to maximize the caging margin to provide maximum local freedom for the object. For verifying the efficiency of the proposed method, it is applied in the rectangular and regular pentagonal shaped moving objects caging problems, and the simulation results illustrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.