Dual-arm robot assisted handling of small objects with complex surfaces towards elder care services Mircea MURAR 1 , Stelian BRAD 2 , Mircea FULEA 3 Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Department of Design Engineering and Robotics 1, 2, 3 mircea.murar@muri.utcluj.ro 1 ; stelian.brad@muri.utcluj.ro 2 ; mircea.fulea@muri.utcluj.ro 3 Achieving close to human-like gripping abilities by robot end-effectors when dealing with manipulation and handling tasks of small to medium objects with complex surfaces can be achieved by replicating and transposing human hand gestures into gripper fingers’ actions. Development of input device capable to read human hand gesture, process and send the acquired data for achieving different tasks dates back to 1980’s (Sturman, 1994). Since then, various robotic hands, input, haptic devices and control methods were developed considering latest technological developments and the increasing number of fields in which they can be used starting from: virtual reality, entertainment, teleoperation, interaction up to medicine and rehabilitation (Kormushev, 2011), (Kronander, 2012), (Su, 2003). A comprehensive survey and brief classification of these devices was done by Dipietro (Dipietro, 2008). One of the most advanced glove type device available on the market is the CyberGlove consisting of up to 21 sensors and Wi-Fi technology, still being very expensive. The major purpose of this paperwork is to develop an affordable input device for a custom architecture consisting of a dual-arm Motoman™ robot and one of the newest designed grippers available on the market by employing embedded systems and rapid development tools. The input device should be capable to transpose finger gestures into useful data, interface with a Motoman™ robot controller hardware, control a three fingers adaptive gripper from Robotiq™ via an industrial communication protocol and provide the framework required for rapid development of applications for services oriented towards assisting elder and elder care personnel in daily actions. Within this paperwork a cost effective input device able to assist human operators in teaching or operating a dual-arm robot to operate smoothly with small to medium size and complex surface objects is presented. A first step towards development and testing of an affordable glove-type device used for controlling two grippers installed on the two arms of a Motoman TM SDA10D robot is introduced in this paper. A wireless control device for a three-finger adaptive gripper from Robotiq TM and a two-finger electrical gripper is set up for the experimental bench. Complex handling operations can be approached by the three-finger gripper due to its adaptive characteristics, while the two-finger gripper is mainly used for auxiliary functionalities in relation to the handling operations. The Robotiq adaptive gripper has four different grasping modes which can be selected by the operator depending on what kind of object is to be manipulated: cylindrical, spheroid, scissors and pinch mode. A grip force of up to 60 N can be delivered by the adaptive gripper and a maximum payload of 10 kg in encompassing grip and 3 kg in fingertip grip is supported.