Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: iwood@fraser.sfu.ca (Ian Wood)
Subject: Re: Monkey Trap and Dexterity
Message-ID: <iwood.737059482@sfu.ca>
Sender: news@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <C6I3n6.5tF@ecf.toronto.edu> <C6IsJq.G8K@world.std.com> <125174@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 18:44:42 GMT
Lines: 29

stein@grip.cis.upenn.edu (Matthew Stein) writes:
>In article <C6I3n6.5tF@ecf.toronto.edu> hertz@ecf.toronto.edu 
>(HERTZ ROGER BARRY) writes:
>>on with the monkey's hand?   Would it be proper to say that the
>>*dexterity* of the monkey's hand has been reduced?  How does one
>>describe the general ability of an arm (monkeys or otherwise)
>>to get in and out of tight places?
>>I have been unable to come up with a term other *dexterity*,
>>any other suggestions?
>You might want to look at what Prof. Tsuneo Yoshikawa terms "Manipulability"
>in his MIT Press book "Foundations of Robotics" and see if that is
>what you have in mind.  If I remember correctly, a manipulability measure
>is a measure of the "ability of manipulation" of a robot.  Seems to
>me the monkey has lost an ability to manipulate its arm in some sense.

I finally got your question to a person here who does grasping
research, and although she didn't have a word for me to give you,
she felt that "manipulability" is more appropriate for what the
hand is able to do to the object that is being grasped.

She suggested published work by
Mark Cutkosky and <dont_know_first_name> Howe (in the robotics
literature) might give you something.

Good luck, Ian
-- 
Ian Wood              (iwood@sfu.ca) | we        _~C             __C
Rehabilitation Engineer, Kinesiology | like    _'\<,      /o\  _'\<,
Simon Fraser Univ.,Burnaby,BC,Canada | bikes  (*)/(*)     (*)-(*)/(*)
