The generation of systems of contacts for stably holding a workpiece is a task requiring knowledge of a large number of rules about rigid-body constraint. A knowledge-based expert system has been developed to automate this process. The system is capable of synthesizing valid constraint configurations for a wide range of workpieces. Its ultimate use is to generate contact profiles for robot gripper jaws based on these constraint configurations. The system is described in this paper, which also gives a brief overview of expert systems in general and of the particular development tool adopted.
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