Nonprehensile manipulation by using non-uniform friction distribution.

Abstract

This paper discusses a nonprehensile manipulation method using a vibrating plate driven by a single actuator. Non-uniform friction distribution is employed to generate three-DoF (degrees of freedom) motion of an object on the plate. First, an analytical model of plate-object system is introduced. Based on the model, the object velocity for given elliptical vibration orbit and surface friction coefficient of the plate is explored. It is revealed that there exists particular parameter setting where the moving direction of the object reversed as the increase of the frequency of the vibration of the plate. Then, three types of non-uniform friction distribution including the particular friction condition are introduced. It is shown that such non-uniform friction distributions have a potential to induce three-DoF motion of the object. Finally, the proposed method is experimentally validated.