Real-Time Force Regulation for Whole-Hand Dexterous Grasping

2026-09-24

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of maintaining physically stable grasps with dexterous robotic hands under dynamic contacts, modeling errors, and external disturbances. To this end, it proposes a real-time force regulation framework that operates without tactile sensing. By fusing geometric estimation with proprioceptive feedback, the method dynamically computes whole-hand contact force distributions that satisfy friction constraints and actuator consistency. Integrated with reactive motion planning, this approach enables closed-loop control across grasp acquisition, maintenance, and post-failure re-grasping for a 27-degree-of-freedom arm-hand system. Simulation results demonstrate significantly enhanced disturbance rejection capabilities, while hardware experiments validate stable grasping under complex contact evolution and rapid recovery following human-induced perturbations.

Abstract

Robust dexterous grasping requires maintaining physical stability despite contacts interactively evolving across the entire hand. A precomputed force distribution can easily fail under object motion, modeling errors, or external disturbances. In this paper, we present a framework for real-time force regulation over dynamically changing whole-hand contacts. Our method geometrically estimates contacts across all hand links using a tracked object model and proprioception, without requiring tactile sensing at those contacts. It repeatedly recomputes the desired contact-force distribution subject to friction constraints, actuator limits, and an actuation-consistency constraint motivated by classical whole-limb force analysis. We integrate this force-regulation controller with reactive reaching, enabling the hand to acquire a grasp, maintain it under disturbances, and regrasp after losing the object. Simulation experiments without gravity demonstrate improved grasp retention over fixed-allocation and fingertip-only execution under controlled perturbations, while real-world experiments on a 27-DoF arm-hand system demonstrate grasp maintenance and recovery under human-applied disturbances as contacts evolve across the whole hand. Project page: https://sangminkim-99.github.io/reactive-grasp-whole-hand/

Problem

• dexterous grasping
• real-time force regulation
• whole-hand contact
• grasp stability
• contact dynamics

Innovation

• real-time force regulation
• whole-hand dexterous grasping
• contact estimation
• actuation-consistency constraint
• reactive reaching