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Spring 1998 Schedule

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This page is provided for historical and archival purposes only. While the seminar dates are correct, we offer no guarantee of informational accuracy or link validity. Contact information for the speakers, hosts and seminar committee are certainly out of date.

Grasping and Manipulation: Geometry and Algorithms

Jean Ponce
Department of Computer Science and Beckman Institute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Place and Time
Adamson Wing, Baker Hall
Refreshments 3:15 pm
Talk 3:30 pm

Abstract
I will discuss the problem of grasping and manipulating objects with simple mechanisms. The proposed approach is based on a detailed analysis of the problem geometry in configuration space. Its main novelty is that it does not assume that contact is maintained during the execution of the grasping/manipulation task, nor does it rely on detailed models of friction or dynamics. Instead, the range of possible object motions for a given mechanism configuration is characterized in configuration space, and this allows for the construction of manipulation plans guaranteed to succeed as long as jamming due to high friction forces does not occur. I will illustrate this approach with simulations and actual experiments involving modular fixtures, a new reconfigurable gripper built in our laboratory, and disc robots used in pushing tasks.

(Joint work with Attawith Sudsang.)

Speaker Biography
Jean Ponce is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His received his Doctorat de Troisieme Cycle and his Doctorat d'Etat in Computer Science from the University of Paris in 1983 and 1988 respectively. Dr. Ponce joined the University of Illinois in 1990 after holding research positions at INRIA, MIT and Stanford University. His research interests are in computer vision and robotics, and include shape representation, object recognition, motion analysis, automatic model acquisition from images, image-based rendering, grasping and manipulation.

Speaker Appointments
For appointments, please contact the host, Martial Hebert, at hebert@ri.cmu.edu.