Robotics researchers have long worked to replicate and improve on the grasping and manipulation abilities of the human hand, but the specialized hardware and repeated testing required to develop grasping capabilities for homes and small industry limit what research can be conducted. This project sets up dedicated test centers accessible to anyone with internet connectivity, providing tutorials, benchmarking data, and hardware to interested researchers.

The field of robotics has advanced significantly, from limited industrial applications to use in everyday households. Despite these strides, robotics has yet to match the technical complexity of the human hand. The hand’s dexterity, tactile sensitivity, and ability to grasp and manipulate are both crucial to navigating our everyday world, and extremely challenging to replicate in robotics.
Research into grasping and manipulation is key to advancing robotics, but most researchers lack access to the specialized hardware and resources needed to perform grasping and manipulation experiments. This project addresses this gap by creating dedicated grasping and manipulation test centers that can be used by anyone with an internet connection. These test centers will provide standardized benchmarks, software and tutorials to teach people the basics of grasping, as well as hardware to perform the actual testing. This infrastructure will allow users to share and compare results of their experiments, allowing a broader group of researchers to contribute. The testbed approach should allow new and existing researchers a low-cost method to participating in the grasping and manipulation scientific community and to provide standards from which the field can grow.