SoGraB: A Visual Method for Soft Grasping Benchmarking and Evaluation

  • Benjamin G. Greenland
  • , Josh Pinskier
  • , Xing Wang
  • , Daniel Nguyen
  • , Ge Shi
  • , Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay
  • , Jen Jen Chung
  • , David Howard

Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The need for industrially relevant tools to safely handle delicate and deformable goods has driven a recent explosion in soft robotic gripper designs. However, there is currently no meaningful way to compare different designs. No commonly available, standardised evaluation protocol exists to assess the performance of soft grippers. This work introduces the Soft Grasping Benchmarking and Evaluation (SoGraB) method to evaluate grasp quality. It quantifies object deformation, and hence grasp quality, by measuring the Density-Aware Chamfer Distance (DCD) between point clouds of soft objects recorded before and after grasping. Through extensive experimentation, we demonstrate the method's ability to evaluate the quality of soft grasps, rank different gripper designs, select soft grippers for complex grasping tasks, and benchmark them for comparison against future designs. We believe SoGraB can be a standard for grasp evaluation and invite future users to contribute by benchmarking their own soft designs against our baselines or adding objects to the dataset.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2025 IEEE 8th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2025
EditorsCosimo Della Santina, Lucia Beccal, Hugo Rodrigue, Ryan Truby, Laura Blumenschein, Gina Olson, Onur Ozaan, Perla Maiolino, Federica Renda, Jamie Paik, Matteo Clanchetti
PublisherIEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages1-6
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9798331520205
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Event8th IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2025 - Lausanne, Switzerland
Duration: 22 Apr 202526 Apr 2025

Publication series

Name2025 IEEE 8th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2025

Conference

Conference8th IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2025
Country/TerritorySwitzerland
CityLausanne
Period22/04/2526/04/25

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