  This paper explores the possibility of improving bilateral robot manipulation
task performance through optimizing the robot morphology and configuration of
the system through motion. To optimize the design for different scenarios, we
select a set of tasks that represent the variability in small scale
manipulation (e.g. pick and place, tasks involving positioning and orientation)
and track the motion to obtain a reproducible trajectory. Kinematic data is
captured through an electromagnetic (EM) tracker system while a human subject
performs the tasks. Then, the data is pre-processed and used to optimize the
morphology of each symmetric robot arm of the bilateral system. Once optimized,
a kinematic control scheme is used to generate a motion with dexterous
configurations. The dexterity is evaluated along the trajectories with standard
dexterity metrics. Results show a 10\% improvement in dexterous maneuverability
with the optimized arm design and optimal base configuration.
