Related papers: Unwieldy Object Delivery with Nonholonomic Mobile …
This paper proposes a technique to manipulate an object with a nonholonomic mobile robot by pushing, which is a nonprehensile manipulation motion primitive. Such a primitive involves unilateral constraints associated with the friction…
In robots, nonprehensile manipulation operations such as pushing are a useful way of moving large, heavy or unwieldy objects, moving multiple objects at once, or reducing uncertainty in the location or pose of objects. In this study, we…
Non-prehensile manipulation such as pushing is typically subject to uncertain, non-smooth dynamics. However, modeling the uncertainty of the dynamics typically results in intractable belief dynamics, making data-efficient planning under…
Pushing is a simple yet effective skill for robots to interact with and further change the environment. Related work has been mostly focused on utilizing it as a non-prehensile manipulation primitive for a robotic manipulator. However, it…
Many robots are not equipped with a manipulator and many objects are not suitable for prehensile manipulation (such as large boxes and cylinders). In these cases, pushing is a simple yet effective non-prehensile skill for robots to interact…
For mobile robots, navigating cluttered or dynamic environments often necessitates non-prehensile manipulation, particularly when faced with objects that are too large, irregular, or fragile to grasp. The unpredictable behavior and varying…
This paper presents an approach to in-hand manipulation planning that exploits the mechanics of alternating sticking contact. Particularly, we consider the problem of manipulating a grasped object using external pushes for which the pusher…
We consider a nonprehensile manipulation task in which a mobile manipulator must balance objects on its end effector without grasping them -- known as the waiter's problem -- and move to a desired location while avoiding static and dynamic…
We introduce a planner designed to guide robot manipulators in stably placing objects within intricate scenes. Our proposed method reverses the traditional approach to object placement: our planner selects contact points first and then…
This paper addresses the problem of cooperative transportation of an object rigidly grasped by N robotic agents. We propose a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) scheme that guarantees the navigation of the object to a desired pose in…
In this paper, we present a stabilizing Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) scheme tailored for a class of nonholonomic systems with drift, where the acceleration is laterally restrained. Examples include a mobile robot with drifting…
Nonprehensile actions such as pushing are crucial for addressing multi-object rearrangement problems. Many traditional methods generate robot-centric actions, which differ from intuitive human strategies and are typically inefficient. To…
This paper addresses the problem of cooperative transportation of an object rigidly grasped by $N$ robotic agents. In particular, we propose a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) scheme that guarantees the navigation of the object to…
We focus on push-based multi-object rearrangement planning using a nonholonomically constrained mobile robot. The simultaneous geometric, kinematic, and physics constraints make this problem especially challenging. Prior work on…
Non-prehensile pushing to move and reorient objects to a goal is a versatile loco-manipulation skill. In the real world, the object's physical properties and friction with the floor contain significant uncertainties, which makes the task…
In this paper we consider the problem of allowing a humanoid robot that is subject to a persistent disturbance, in the form of a payload-carrying task, to follow given planned footsteps. To solve this problem, we combine an online nonlinear…
This work explores the use of topological tools for achieving effective non-prehensile manipulation in cluttered, constrained workspaces. In particular, it proposes the use of persistent homology as a guiding principle in identifying the…
This paper addresses the problem of mobile grasping in dynamic, unknown environments where a robot must operate under a limited field-of-view. The fundamental challenge is the inherent trade-off between ``seeing'' around to reduce…
We propose a real-time implementable motion planning framework for cooperative object transportation by nonholonomic mobile manipulator robots (MMRs) in dynamic environments. Our global planner finds a path from start to goal through the…
Precise and flexible cart-pushing is a challenging task for mobile robots. The motion constraints during cart-pushing and the robot's redundancy lead to complex motion planning problems, while variable payloads and disturbances present…