Robotic Dexterous Manipulation via Anisotropic Friction Modulation using Passive Rollers

2026-03-28

AI Summary

Current robotic fingertips struggle to dynamically modulate contact friction and constraint direction, limiting dexterity in within-grasp manipulation. This work proposes a novel fingertip design integrating passive rollers with a selective braking mechanism, enabling mechanical modulation of anisotropic friction through a pivoting frame. Coupled with parallel-jaw grippers, the design facilitates a constraint mechanics model that supports adaptive manipulation. By uniquely combining pivotable passive rollers and a brake in a low-complexity architecture, the approach achieves dynamic reorientation of constraint directions, significantly enhancing operational adaptability. Experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness in complex dexterous tasks, including in-hand sliding and rotation, robust responses under uncertain contacts, multi-object coordinated manipulation, and asymmetric frictional interactions.

Abstract

Controlling friction at the fingertip is fundamental to dexterous manipulation, yet remains difficult to realize in robotic hands. We present the design and analysis of a robotic fingertip equipped with passive rollers that can be selectively braked or pivoted to modulate contact friction and constraint directions. When unbraked, the rollers permit unconstrained sliding of the contact point along the rolling direction; when braked, they resist motion like a conventional fingertip. The rollers are mounted on a pivoting mechanism, allowing reorientation of the constraint frame to accommodate different manipulation tasks. We develop a constraint-based model of the fingertip integrated into a parallel-jaw gripper and analyze its ability to support diverse manipulation strategies. Experiments show that the proposed design enables a wide range of dexterous actions that are conventionally challenging for robotic grippers, including sliding and pivoting within the grasp, robust adaptation to uncertain contacts, multi-object or multi-part manipulation, and interactions requiring asymmetric friction across fingers. These results demonstrate the versatility of passive roller fingertips as a low-complexity, mechanically efficient approach to friction modulation, advancing the development of more adaptable and robust robotic manipulation.

Problem

• dexterous manipulation
• friction modulation
• robotic fingertips
• passive rollers
• anisotropic friction

Innovation

• anisotropic friction
• passive rollers
• dexterous manipulation
• friction modulation
• constraint reorientation